Social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter may face a ban in India if they do not comply with the new Intermediary Guidelines.
The deadline to accept the new guidelines meant for social media platforms, which were issued by government three months ago is ending on Tuesday (May 25) but so far none of the platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter has complied with the new regulations yet.
As per reports, the Indian version of Twitter, Koo, is the only social media app that has complied with the new guidelines ahead of the May 25 deadline.
In February 2021, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MEITY) had given a three-month time to the social platforms to comply with the new IT rules.
“If social media companies do not obey the rules, they may lose their status and protections as intermediaries and may become liable for criminal action as per the existing laws of India,” top official sources told news agency IANS.
As per reports, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and others, which were required to abide by the rules notified in the Gazette of India on February 25 under Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, 2021, have failed to comply on many accounts till date.
As per the new rules announced by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on February 25, the social media platforms will have to appoint compliance officers from India. The officer will overlook the complaints, monitor the content and remove it if it is objectionable. Such rules are also applicable to OTT platforms.
As per the new rules, the committee will have the sole power to take actions on complaints of the violation of codes.
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