Facebook to comply with provisions of the IT rules- new intermediary guidelines ; the deadline ended on Tuesday

The govt had announced the new intermediary guidelines in February, giving social media firms three months to comply with them; the deadline ended on Tuesday

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R. Suryamurthy   |  TT  |  New Delhi   | 26.05.21: Hours before the new government rules to regulate online content come into force, social media giant Facebook said it would comply with the provisions.

“We aim to comply with the provisions of the IT rules and continue to discuss a few of the issues which need more engagement with the government,” a Facebook spokesperson said.

Facebook, however, did not give any date for compliance. “We are working to implement operational processes and improve efficiencies. Facebook remains committed to people’s ability to freely and safely express themselves on our platform.”

Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook owner, also has majority stakes in Instagram and WhatsApp.

Google said it has invested consistently to combat illegal content but did not say whether it will comply with the regulations.

“We respect India’s legislative process and have a long history of responding to government requests to remove content where the content violates the local law or our product policies,” a Google spokesperson said.

“We have invested in significant product changes, resources, and personnel to ensure that we’re combating illegal content in an effective and fair way, and in order to comply with local laws in the jurisdictions that we operate in.”

“We realise that our work in keeping our platforms secure is never done and we will continue to refine our existing approaches, and evolve our policies and be as transparent as possible about how we make decisions,” the spokesperson added.

Twitter when contacted declined to comment. WhatsApp also did not respond.

The government had announced the new intermediary guidelines in February, giving social media firms three months to comply with them. The deadline ended on Tuesday.

Sources said except for one Indian social media company, Koo, none of the top social media intermediaries has appointed a resident grievance officer, a chief compliance officer and a nodal contact person yet.

The new rules require large social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to conduct additional due diligence, including the appointment of the officers.

Analysts said the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code), Rules 2021  would “fundamentally” change the Indian internet. The rules drafted without much consultation were criticised for being a back door to implement “political censorship” of content.

The special provisions, which are put together under “additional due diligence” in the rules, require social media platforms with more than 50 lakh registered users to appoint a specific chief compliance officer.

In addition to the three-officer requirement, the social media platforms are required to have a physical contact address in India.