Social media is abuzz with fears that Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube may be banned in India from tomorrow. Hashtags such as #IStandWithTwitterIndia and #BanTwitterIndia are trending on Twitter since morning. Memers are having a field day making all kinds of memes on the ban scare. But what is the brouhaha all about? And will the Fb, Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter ban really happen? Here are the facts –
On 25th February 2021, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had introduced new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules for social media platforms with more than 50 lakh registered users. The rules stated that:
1. Social media platforms must appoint a chief compliance officer who will ensure compliance with the new Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Intermediaries Rules,
2. A grievance redressal officer, who will look into complaints and acknowledge them within 24 hours and provide adequate redressal within 15 days.
3. A nodal contact person who will coordinate round-the-clock with law enforcement agencies.
4. The aforementioned three officers must be residents of India.
5. The platforms must share information with the government about the social media user who first posted a particular message shared on their platform, if required by the government
6. The social media platforms must remove objectionable content from their platforms within 36 hours, if so asked by the government.
7. There are more guidelines relating to removing nudity, sexual content, religiously/politically sensitive or communal content, if the platforms receive complaints from authorities regarding said content.
The I&B Ministry and MeITY had given the social media platforms 3 months to comply with the new rules. The three months are up today, 25th May, and none of the platforms, other than the homegrown Koo platform, has complied with the rules as yet – that is Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
The platforms’ non-compliance of the rules laid down by the government allows the government to take action against the offending social networking platforms – including banning them.
However, we don’t think the Government of India will go so far as to ban Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Instead, it may invoke provisions in Section 79 of the IT Act to take away the privileges enjoyed by these platforms that says the social media intermediaries (social media platforms) shall not be liable for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted by them. As a consequence, the GOI may initiate criminal proceedings against the companies for any objectionable content posted on their platforms.
But no, even though the GOI banned TikTok, we don’t think it will ban Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Not yet; not tomorrow.
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