Here's how govt of India proposes to regulate social media

Aimed at making social media companies such as WhatsApp, TikTok and Facebook more responsible in checking content on their platforms, the government is likely to notify its new intermediary guidelines soon.

India has been working on the draft guidelines to regulate social media platforms since 2018.

The government says the new rules are required to make technology platforms more liable for content as internet is a potent tool to cause unimaginable disruption to the democratic polity.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had told the Supreme Court in October last year that it would notify the Information Technology 2018 by January 15. The guidelines are likely to be finalised soon.

Here's the list of regulations that the government has proposed in the updated draft, which could be notified soon.

1. Social media platforms have been defined as those that enable users to create, share or upload information.
2. Significant social media platforms must publish an India-specific transparency report twice a year.
3. Platforms will have to use technology or automated tools to proactively identify and remove information showing children in an inappropriate way, promote terrorism and spread social disharmony.
4. To promote responsible online behaviour, platforms should collect phone numbers of all their users and verify it at least once every year.
5. All significant social media companies to appoint a grievance officer located in India along with a nodal officer.
6. User traceability clause, for platforms more than 5 million users, can only be used when government or its agencies have a supporting court order.
7. Email services, browsers, online encyclopaedias, search engines or online storage services are exempted from the rules.
8. Any social media platform can either be a company incorporated under the Companies Act or be a subsidiary of a foreign company.

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