02 Mar New Guidelines for Social Media and OTT Platforms in India
Over-the-top media services, various Social media and OTT platforms in India have been through a bit of a ruffle for a while. The freedom that these platforms have seems to come with a bit of a loss for their customers.
These problems are something that the Government Of India has been trying to address since 2018. However, the urgency for action seemed to have become pretty apparent.
On February 25th, The Government announced various regulations for OTTs and social media marketing platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, etc. These regulations intend to “empower the users of social media and other intermediaries” by addressing various user grievances. As a developer, it is crucial to be mindful of these guidelines to deliver a proper service with adherence to the laws.
Three-Tier Vet
These regulations have been introduced as a guideline to help companies deal with customer grievances. They also help the government keep track of content that might prove to be criminal.
They intend to implement a 3-stair vetting process to help regulate content:
· Self-regulation by the publishers.
· Self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of the publishers.
· Oversight mechanism.
Keeping that intent in mind, below are some of the guidelines proposed by the government-
To implement on Social Media and OTT Platforms:
Intermediaries to follow due diligence: Companies have had a safe-harbor provision applied to them so far. Those provisions get removed if the diligence is not followed.
Grievance Redressal System: With this mechanism, intermediaries are to appoint a grievance officer. These officers are to register user/victim complaints within 24 hours itself and resolve them in 15 days. The officers must be Indian residents and have to file monthly compliance reports for social media platforms to vet. In case a complaint is not addressed satisfactorily, it can be taken up by a self-regulatory body established by the OTTs. This body will be led by either a retired judge of the Supreme Court, a High Court, or an independent eminent person from media, broadcasting, child and human rights, or other relevant fields.
Online Safety and Dignity: Intermediaries are to disable access to content that exposes the private parts of individuals, shows them in full or partial nudity, shows them in a sexual act, or is a form of impersonation using altered images. Not just that, content that is defamatory, libelous, racist, harmful to minors, threatening the unity, integrity, security, or sovereignty of India & ties with other countries has to be removed or disabled within 36 hours of being notified.
Social–Media Categories: The rules make distinctions between various social media intermediaries based on the number of users they have. The government is to notify the threshold of the user base. The significant social media intermediaries are required to follow additional due diligence.
Self–Classification: The OTT platforms will be required to self-classify their movies and content based on age. Minister Prakash Javadekar, in a press briefing on February 25th, mentioned that OTT platforms need to establish a self-classification system for content such as ’13+’, ’16+’ and ‘Adult (A)’ Categories. Several parental control systems such as that of Netflix are to be established too.
First–Originator: Social Media platforms are informed about revealing and disclosing the first originator of any notorious message. This guideline would also apply for spreading specific content, upon which the punishment is up to 5 years. It asks the significant social media intermediary to have a physical Indian address published on the app and/or the website. End-to-end encrypted platforms such as WhatsApp might have to breach that level of security when asked to.
Voluntary-Verification: Social Media Platforms are informed to have a proper provision for users who wish to verify themselves voluntarily through their account on each platform.
Conclusion
Under “Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Code” Rule 2021, the mentioned guidelines seem to come into effect immediately after the press conference. The ministry also intends to “formulate an oversight mechanism” in due time to help transfer information between different bodies within and around the intermediaries. The government welcomes companies to do business with the country but with the condition that they adhere to the guidelines proposed by them.
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