Social Media Will Soon Face Tough New Regulations In India

The Indian government is instituting new regulations that will increase the oversight of social media platforms, streaming services and news outlets, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Thursday (Feb. 25). The new mandates follow a riff between Twitter and the Indian government over the social media platform’s refusal to block accounts tweeting about the farmers’ protests in the country. 

Draft legislation of the new regulations indicates that platforms have 36 hours after being notified to remove offensive content. Content is considered offensive if it threatens the “unity, integrity, defense, security or sovereignty of India” or “causes incitement,” according to the draft seen by FT. Companies will also have to appoint Indian residents to serve as chief compliance officers, law enforcement coordinators and grievance redressal officers. Additionally, digital firms must work with the government to crack the identity of the “first originator” of messages considered unlawful.

Prasanth Sugathan, legal director at the Software Freedom Law Centre, India, told FT that the new rules were “problematic” and could result in legal challenges. “This amounts to surveillance,” someone close to a U.S. Big Tech company operating in India told the outlet. “It certainly raises questions about privacy; now you literally don’t have a place to have a private conversation.”

“Social media is welcome to do business in India, they have done exceedingly well, they have done good business, they have empowered ordinary Indians. The government welcomes criticism and the right to dissent. … It is important that social media users running into crores should be given a platform for raising their grievance to raise complaints about abuse of social media,” Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a press conference, per TheHindu.com.

The guidelines for the new legislation were published in December, and included a period for public comment. The Internet and Mobile Association of India, an industry group that counts Facebook, Alphabet and Amazon as members, is against the new regulations, saying they would violate privacy rights recognized by the Supreme Court.