News Update

Government to bring new norms for social media

• ByTejika Bajaj     |    January 3, 2022

With 2021 packed with multiple standoffs between social media giants and government, the Indian government is all set to introduce regulatory norms for social media giants which would thus ensure a protection of people’s interest.

India is ready to bring in legislation to protect personal data, enforce tighter checks on digital platforms as well as regulate cross border transfer of information.

These series of norms come right after multiple social media giants called in trouble for themselves by spreading hate speech and giving rise to multiple revolts and agitations in the wrong direction. Furthermore, Twitter was called off for being a platform for spreading misinformation and provocative content around the farmers’ protest in India.

Additionally, the recent backend failures of the social media handles along with compromise in case of prominent personalities’ social media accounts has further aggravated the need to bring in a legal framework to protect the interest and well-being of the general public.

The new rules that the government is likely to raise would require social media companies to take down contentious content quicker, appoint grievance redressal officers and assist investigation. Further, significant social media intermediaries (those with more than 50 lakh users)  would have to follow additional due diligence, including the deployment of a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person and a resident grievance officer and all the three officials will have to be residents in India.

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