India draws up new rules on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

India draws up new rules on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

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The rules require any social media company to create three roles in India: a ‘compliance officer’ who will ensure that they follow local laws; a “grievance officer” who will address complaints from Indian users about their platforms; and a “contact person” available to Indian law enforcers 24/7. The companies will also have to publish a monthly compliance report setting out how many complaints they have received and what steps they have taken.

Social media platforms will also be required to remove certain types of content, including posts containing ‘complete or partial nudity’, a ‘sexual act’ or ‘imitation, including morphic images’.

Large social networks, which India will soon determine based on the number of users, will have three months to comply with the policy changes, while the smaller one is expected to comply immediately, the government said.

The new rules come on the heels of a tense uprising between Twitter and the Indian government. Twitter has reinstated several bills the government has ordered to take down for the use of so-called ‘contagious and unfounded’ hashtags related to farmers protesting against new agricultural reforms. The platform eventually took down hundreds of accounts and partially restricted others, but drew a line by refusing to block accounts of journalists, activists and politicians.
At the same time, the rules indicate greater willingness by countries around the world to restrain large technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter that have made governments fear too strong with little accountability.
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“Social media is welcome to do business in India – they have done exceptionally well, they have brought good business, they have brought a large number of users and they have also empowered ordinary Indians,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s Minister of State. electronics and information. technology, reporters said Thursday. But he said that while the government “welcomes criticism and the right to disagree,” technology companies need to do more “against the abuse and misuse of social media.”

Facebook said it would “study the new rules” carefully. “We’re always been clear as a business that we welcome the guidelines that set the guidelines for tackling the toughest challenges on the Internet today,” a company spokesman told CNN Business. “Facebook is an ally of India and the user safety and security agenda is critical to our platforms.”

Twitter and Google, which own YouTube, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Some other provisions in India’s rules may end up being a bit more controversial, especially a requirement to track down the ‘first creator’ of problematic messages or posts that go viral. WhatsApp, the mobile messaging app owned by Facebook, and it is very popular in India, has pushed against the requirements in the past, saying that it would require the end-to-end coding of the app.
Prasad also mentions the difference between how social media platforms respond to events in the United States and India, while the riots in Capitol Hill on January 6 contrasted with the violent clashes between Indian police and protesters in New Delhi’s Red Fort single weeks later. (The Indian government has earlier criticized Twitter for taking immediate action against various bills following the riot in Capitol Hill, while doing so ‘reluctantly, reluctantly and with great delay’ in India.)

“If there is an attack on Capitol Hill in Congress, then social media supports the actions of the police, but if there is an aggressive attack on Red Fort, the symbol of India’s freedom … there is a double standard , “he said. “That is unacceptable.”

Twitter stuck between a rock and a hard place in India
The escalation in India poses a particular challenge for Silicon Valley, as the country is one of its largest markets in South Asia. India has more internet users than any other country besides China, but the government has shown a growing tendency in recent years to regulate and even restrict (or even ban) foreign technology enterprises.

At Thursday’s press conference, Prasad quoted industry estimates emphasizing how important India is to these companies: WhatsApp has 530 million users in the country. Facebook’s flagship platform has 410 million users and Instagram owned by Facebook has 210 million. According to YouTube, YouTube and Twitter have about 450 million and 17.5 million users.

CNN’s Esha Mitra contributed to this report.

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