Earlier this year, the Indian government announced drastic new rules forsocial media companies and a code of ethics for OTT streaming platforms.The new rules provide stricter and wide-ranging obligations onintermediaries for proactive monitoring of content and fear of legalliability or action which could lead to over-censorship of content.

Social media platforms, the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram weregiven three months to comply, and the deadline is ending tomorrow.

Top officials in the country have disclosed that the platforms wererequired to abide by the rules notified in the Gazette of India on February25 under Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, 2021,and they have failed to comply on many accounts to date.

The source said,

If social media companies do not obey the rules, they may lose their statusand protections as intermediaries and may become liable for criminal actionas per the existing laws of India.

Until now, except for the Indian social media company, Koo, none of the topsocial media intermediaries has appointed a resident grievance officer.Locals have been persistently complaining against tech giants due toarbitrary suspensions of accounts and inaction over abuses and bigotry onthe platforms.

Until now, none of the platforms has shown any inclination to comply withIndia’s domestic laws and the government is planning to take drasticmeasures against them after tomorrow.

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