120 crore Indians deserve open, safe and accountable Internet: MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar on new IT rules
The minister highlighted that the Grievance Redressal Mechanism of social media intermediaries is broken and that the government had received millions of testimonies from Internet users in India about their grievances not being addressed.
FollowA day after the government notified new amendments to intermediary guidelines to protect online users, the government defended its move, stating that some intermediaries wrongly believed that their community guidelines supersede provisions of India's Constitution.
Briefing the media persons, Union Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, Skill Development, Electronics & Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that new amended IT rules are the next step to realizing the government's duty to 'Digital Nagriks' of an open, safe and trusted and accountable Internet.
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The minister highlighted that the Grievance Redressal Mechanism of social media intermediaries is broken and that the government had received millions of testimonies from Internet users in India about their grievances not being addressed.
'The government wants to work with intermediaries for a safe Internet. Over 120 crore Indians deserve open, safe and accountable Internet,' he said.
The Narendra Modi government had on Friday notified new rules under which grievances of users against decisions of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook on hosting contentious content would be settled by appellate panels that would be set up.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) gazette notification said users could flag objectionable religious content (with intent to incite violence) alongside pornography, fake information, trademark infringements and things that could be a threat to the sovereignty of the nation on social media platforms.Â
Their decisions on such flaggings can be challenged in the grievance committees.
According to the gazette notification, a three-member Grievance Appellate Committee(GAC) will be set in three months from the date of commencement of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2022.
The GAC will comprise a chairperson and two full-time members appointed by the Centre, of which one shall be an ex-officio member while two shall be independent members. Every order passed by the GAC shall be complied with by the intermediary concerned, and a report to that effect shall be uploaded on its website.
The need to incorporate penalties will be the last resort, Chandrasekhar said when asked about any punitive action upon social media intermediaries that refused to comply with new amendments.
While emphasising that trust and safety were integral to its public policy mission, the government has said that it will do all it takes to ensure that digital citizens have suitable safeguards for navigating social media and online space.
The government has, time and again, reiterated that the constitutional rights of citizens could not be undermined by social media firms and that internet must be a safe and trusted place with all platforms accountable to their users.
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