What are the New Guidelines for Social Media, OTT and Digital platforms?

What are the New Guidelines for Social Media, OTT and Digital platforms? kuchbhi.com/technology/new-social-media-ott-guidelines.html Ajay Lulia

March 1, 2021

Intermediaries for social media like Whatsapp will now be required to adhere to newer and stricter guidelines issued by the Union Government. According to this, they need to identify the sources of messages considered unlawful. The same guidelines apply to YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. They need to take down such posts and messages within a certain time frame, assist agencies of government in the investigation, and address mechanisms for grievance redressal.

Proposed Guidelines for Digital Media and Intermediaries Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister of IT and Electronics said in a press conference that Information Technology Rules 2021 lists the guidelines of ethical codes for Digital Media and Intermediaries. It is a soft mechanism to oversee the eradication of fake news spread, curb the supply of morphed images of women, and revenge porn-related contents and rivalries amongst corporates.

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The significant social media intermediaries need to adhere to the new guidelines such as: 1. Appoint a Chief Compliance Officer responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act & Rules.

2. Appoint a Nodal Contact Person 3. Appoint a Resident Grievance Officer pic.twitter.com/UekMZhkTwk — Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) February 25, 2021 Source: twitter.com/rsprasad

Besides, he said that while social media is welcome for doing business in India, they welcome all criticisms and their right to dissent from it. Forums should be available for users to resolve grievances concerning the abuse of social media. However, there should not be double standards, and the redressal should be the same for Red Fort as for Capitol Hill.

All the sectors have demanded a level field for playing for the two platforms in all media categories. Thus, the Act of Information Technology 2000 is formulating an institutional mechanism for leveling the playing field as said by the government.

Impact of New Guidelines on Social Media Companies

Prominent platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp will now have to undergo a significant change, where they need to provide the source of origin for particular tweets, posts, and messages if asked by any government authority or courts. However, the

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inquisition is limited only to the cases where India’s integrity and sovereignty are in question, along with public order, sexually explicit content, state security, rape, and relations with foreign nations.

End to End Encryption may end within India

This rule also indicates that Whatsapp might be required to cease the end-to-end encryption within India. Also, there will be a formation of a committee with an interdepartmental approach comprising of members from the Law and Justice Ministry, Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Home Affairs Ministry, Women, and Child Development Ministry, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, Ministry of Defense, and External Affairs Ministry.

The committee will have suo moto powers to call for hearings against code of ethics violations.

Impact on OTT Platforms There is a call for grievance and redressal platform for OTT content as well by the government. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar has highlighted that every type of freedom should be a responsible one. Under the guidelines, prominent OTT platforms like Amazon and Netflix will be required to set up grievance redressal mechanisms as the films are having censor boards. OTT content will be required to self-classify them based upon age. The classification should be detailed upon the basis of violence, age, sex, and nudity for the content.

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The impact upon Digital Platforms All the digital platforms that publish online content or curate content are covered under the new proposed rules. The new proposed rules are based on a 3 tier system selfregulation, self-regulation by the self-regulatory bodies, and the Government mechanism, which will oversee the first 2 tier. Whether the Centre will bell the cat or will it prove to be a toothless tiger will be seen in the days to come.

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