Context: New rules have come into effect, taking away the protection granted to social media intermediaries under Section 79 of the IT Act if they fail to comply.

New IT rules:

• The new rules for social media platforms and digital news outlets, are called as the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code.
• New IT rules for social media companies, are aimed at making digital platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram and Google more accountable and responsible for the content hosted on their platform.

• It require large social media players to follow additional due diligence, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer.
• ‘Significant social media intermediaries’ - defined as those with over 50 lakh registered users - were given three months’ time to comply with the additional requirements.
• It require that the instant messaging apps has to make provisions for tracking the first originator of a message.
• Non-compliance with rules, will result in losing their intermediary status that provides them exemptions and certain immunity from liabilities for any third-party information and data hosted by them.
• It also require these platforms to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours, and take down posts depicting nudity or morphed photos within 24 hours of receiving a complaint.
• It mandates setting up a robust complaint redressal mechanism with an officer being based in the country.
• Significant social media companies will have to publish a monthly compliance report disclosing details of complaints received and action taken, as well as details of contents removed proactively.
• They will also be required to have a physical contact address in India published on its website or mobile app, or both.
• Failure to comply with any one of these requirements would take away the indemnity provided to social media intermediaries under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.

WhatsApp concern:

• Requirement for the company to provide access to encrypted messages will break privacy protections.

What is Section 79 of the IT Act?

• It says any intermediary shall not be held legally or otherwise liable for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted on its platform.
• This means that as long as a platform acts just as the messenger carrying a message from point A to point B, without interfering in any manner, it will be safe from any legal prosecution brought upon due to the message being transmitted.
• The protection accorded under Section 79, however, is not granted if the intermediary, despite being informed or notified by the government or its agencies, does not immediately disable access to the material under question.
• The intermediary must not tamper with any evidence of these messages or content present on its platform, failing which it lose its protection under the Act.

What are the global norms on safe harbour protection for social media intermediaries?

• Like Section 79 of India’s IT Act, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act states that “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider”.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/intermediary-guidelines-digital-media-ethics-code-facebook-twitter-instagram-7331820/

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