Parliamentary panel on Information Technology summons Facebook, Google on June 29

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology is scheduled to hold a meeting on June 29, 2021, to hear the views of social media giants Facebook and Google India on safeguarding the citizen’s rights and prevention of misuse of social online news media platforms.

The parliamentary committee has called the representatives of the two IT giants to register their views on the matter.

The Committee, earlier on June 18, 2021, had also called Twitter to appear before the panel to give representation on how to prevent the misuse of online news as well as social media.

India on new IT rules in UN:

India’s Permanent Mission at the United Nations, on June 20, 2021, had clarified that the new Information Technology rules introduced by India have been ‘designed to empower the ordinary users of social media'.

The authorities also informed that the new rules were finalized only after the Indian Government held broad discussions and consultations with civil society and other stakeholders in 2018.

IT Guidelines for social media platforms:

The new guidelines were announced by the Government of India in February 2021

• Under the guidelines, the Government has asked all the social media platforms to establish a grievances redressal and compliance mechanism. It will include appointing a resident grievance officer, a nodal contact person, and a chief compliance officer.

• The Electronics and Information Technology Ministry of India has also asked the social media platforms to submit monthly reports on the complaints received from the users and actions taken.

• The third requirement, under guidelines by the Government, was for the instant messaging apps to make provisions for tracking the first originator of a message.

Background:

The Government of India has framed the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (‘new IT Rules’), and had notified the same on February 25, 2021. The new rules came into effect on May 26, 2021.