The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has released a new draught of amendments to the Information Technology Rules, 2021, which proposes the establishment of government-appointed appeal committees with the power to overturn content-moderation decisions made by social media intermediaries such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
The ministry had produced a draught containing the identical plan last week, but it was quickly withdrawn. However, MeitY’s new draught, which was released late Monday night, is basically the same as the previous plan.
The draught suggests establishing government-appointed appeal bodies with the authority to evaluate and even overturn social media firms’ content moderation decisions. “The Central Government must establish one or more Grievance Appellate Committees, consisting of a Chairperson and such additional Members as the Central Government may designate by publication in the Official Gazette,” MeitY wrote in the proposal.
It simply implies that if a user is dissatisfied with a company’s grievance officer’s content moderation judgement, they can appeal the decision to the proposed government-appointed appeals committee. The ministry stated in the proposal that “any order given by the Grievance Appellate Committee will be complied with by the concerned intermediary.” Currently, the only way for a user to challenge a company’s content judgments is to go to court.
Aside from that, the new plan involves giving grievance officials selected by social media firms more responsibility. It states that if a user files a complaint about information that is “patently untrue,” infringes on copyright, or undermines India’s integrity, among other things, a grievance officer must respond within 72 hours. Grievance officials have 15 days to respond on and resolve customer concerns under existing procedures.
MeitY claimed the proposed modifications will guarantee that “Constitutional rights of Indian citizens are not contravened by any large digital platform by enforcing new accountability requirements,” according to a press statement published late Monday. According to the revised draught, “real execution of obligations in IT Rules, 2021 in text and spirit” would be ensured.
Users have often complained to the government about social media firms deplatforming individuals without giving them an opportunity to justify their behaviour, according to a top government official. According to the source, this indicates that the rules that were enacted in May of last year had loopholes, which the proposed revisions would fix.
According to the IT Rules, 2021, which took effect last year, social media firms such as Facebook and Twitter are required to employ India-based resident grievance officers as part of their due diligence as ‘intermediaries’ who enjoy legal protection from third-party material on their platforms. These personnel are in charge of managing the grievance redressal system for complaints received from customers.
Concerns have been raised regarding the government overriding social media firms’ content judgments as a result of the idea to create government-appointed committees.
“The proposal, without any legislative basis, seeks to subject content on social media to direct scrutiny of the government by permitting users to appeal decisions of social media platforms to a Grievance Appellate Committee constituted by MeitY,” the Delhi-based digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation had said when the proposal was made in the last draught.
