Will Indians lose access to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
in two days? These social media giants have been put on notice by the Centre
with a warning about their failure to comply with a set of guidelines that will
come into effect in two days, reports NDTV quoting government sources. Earlier
this year on February 25, the Ministry of Electronics & Information
Technology (MEITy) had given a three-month deadline to all social media
platforms to comply with the new IT Rules 2021, the window for which ends on
May 25.
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The rules include appointment of compliance officials,
giving their name and contact address in India, complaint resolution,
monitoring of objectionable content, compliance report and removal of
objectionable content. So far, no company except for one has appointed any such
officials, sources said. Some platforms have asked for a six-month deadline,
saying that they were still waiting for instructions from their headquarters in
the US. Under the new laws, the oversight mechanism will include a committee
with representatives from ministries of Defence, External Affairs, Home,
I&B, Law, IT and Women and Child Development. It will have “suo motu
powers” to call hearings on complaints of violation of the Code of Ethics if it
wants. The government will also designate an officer of the rank of a Joint Secretary
or above as the “Authorised Officer” who can direct blocking of content. If an
appellate body believes that the content violates the law, it is empowered to
send the content to a government-controlled committee for blocking orders to be
issued.
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