Social media rules: Users to have more say in flagging objectionable content; redressal mechanism put in place

Grievance Appellate Committee: While Elon Musk has been waxing eloquent about freeing the cage bird, (read Twitter), little does he realize that all social media platforms need to conform to specific country-related IT rules which till now have been a grey area. The government in its wake has decided to set its house in order and make social media giants accountable by putting in place “appellate panels to redress grievances that users may have against decisions of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook on hosting contentious content.” The government notified the same on Friday. A three-member Grievance Appellate Committee(s) will be constituted in a time span of 90 days, a gazette notification issued by MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) said.

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Anti-religious content

Among the  new rules proposed with an aim to benefit users, the ministry has “added objectionable religious content (with intent to incite violence) alongside pornography, trademark infringements, fake information and something that could be a threat to sovereignty of the nation that users can flag to social media platforms. Users’ decisions to flag such allegedly contentious content can soon be challenged in the grievance committees.

Once the amendments were notified, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw tweeted: “Empowering users. “Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) has been introduced for hearing appeals against decisions of Grievance Officer appointed by the intermediary”.

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In another tweet, the minister said, Law of the land is supreme…”

All this while big social media giants have been batting for self-regulation but the government has taken the stand that customers/users are king and their concerns need to be proactively addressed by an appellate body.

Earlier, the ministry in February 2021, had clearly notified IT rules that made it mandatory for for social media platforms to appoint a grievance officer. This was done to help users flag their concerns and  complaints against content or another user, to the grievance officer.

A slew of other amendments which include controlling fake news, explicitly sexual content and pornography, some of the many rules that are being amended by the IT Ministry.

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