Page 6 - The Indian EYE 060421

BIG STORY JUNE 04, 2021 | The Indian Eye 6

govt vs social media

speech cOntrOl?

Big social media firms and the government lock horns over free speech.

While most fall in line, twitter and Whatsapp raise objections

about the new it rules in india

Our Bureau
New Delhi

n a major decision, most of
the major social media in-
Itermediaries, including Koo,
Sharechat, Telegram, LinkedIn,
Google, Facebook, WhatsApp,
etc., on Friday shared details of
their Chief Compliance Officer
(CCO), Nodal Contact Person
(NCP), and Grievance Officer
(GO) with the Union Electron-
ics and IT Ministry as required
by the new I-T (Intermediary
Guidelines & Digital Media
Ethics Code) rules, sources
informed. However, the mi-
cro-blogging site Twitter is still
not following the rules.
On February 25, the Centre
framed the Information Tech- India is one of the biggest consumers of social media
nology (Intermediary Guide-
lines and Digital Media Ethics as indicated. They also will have days. sage sent on WhatsApp, which
Code) Rules 2021, in the exercise to publish a monthly report After a firm response from would break end-to-end encryp-
of powers under section 87 (2) about the number of complaints the Central government on tion and fundamentally under-
of the Information Technology received and the status of re- Thursday, Twitter sent a com- mines people’s right to privacy.”
Act, 2000 and in supersession of dressal. munication, sharing details of The government had said
the earlier Information Technol- a lawyer working in a law firm that if there are complaints
ogy (Intermediary Guidelines) the new guidelines issued in India as their Nodal Contact against the dignity of users, par-
Rules 2011, which will come into Person and Grievance Officer. ticularly women - about exposed
effect from May 26. by the government of india However, it has not yet sent the private parts of individuals or
As per the guidelines, first, mandated a grievance re- details of the CCO to the Min- nudity or sexual act or imper-
the social media platforms will istry. WhatsApp on Wednes- sonation etc - social media plat-
have to have a chief compliance dressal system for over the day had moved the Delhi High forms will be required to remove
officer residing in India respon- top (ott) and digital portals Court against the Centre’s re- that within 24 hours after a com-
sible for ensuring compliance cently imposed IT Rules that plaint is made.
with the act and the rules. in the country. would require the messaging Earlier, a petition was filed
Second is a nodal contact services to “trace” the origin of in the Delhi High Court against
person who should reside in In- Under the new rules, so- particular messages sent on the Twitter for alleged non-compli-
dia for 24X7 coordination with cial media platforms will have service. ance with the Information Tech-
law enforcement agencies. Also, to have a grievance redressal WhatsApp through its state- nology (Intermediary Guide-
social media platforms have to mechanism. They will also have ment said, “Requiring messag- lines and Digital Media Ethics
appoint a resident grievance to name a grievance officer who ing apps to ‘trace’ chats is the Code) Rules, 2021.
officer who shall perform the shall register the grievance with- equivalent of asking us to keep The petition has been filed
grievance redressal mechanism in 24 hours and disposal in 15 a fingerprint of every single mes- Continued on next page... >>

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