Keypoints:
- New IT rules aim at regulating content on social media firms and it makes the likes of Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter more accountable to legal requests for quick removal of posts along with sharing details on the originators of messages.
- Recently, the Central government withdrew Twitter’s intermediary platform status due to non-compliance with the new IT rules.
On Saturday, Union Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asked the social media platforms to not lecture India on its ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘democracy’. He asserted that if these ‘‘profit making’ firms want to earn money in India, then they will have to follow the “Indian Constitution and Indian laws”.
He was addressing a lecture on ‘Social Media & Social Security’ and ‘Criminal Justice System Reforms: An Unfinished Agenda’ organized by Symbiosis International University as part of the Symbiosis Golden Jubilee Lecture Series, he said that the new IT guidelines does not deal with the use of social media, but with the abuse and misuse of those social media platforms.
The new IT rules were originally announced in the month of February. It gives the users of the platform a forum for redressal of their grievances. Prasad added that they are aimed at regulating content on social media firms and it makes the likes of Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter more accountable to legal requests for quick removal of posts along with sharing details on the originators of messages.
The minister said that, “The new rules require social media companies to set up an India-based grievance redressal officer, compliance officer, and the nodal officer so that millions of social media users get a forum for grievance redressal.” He added that no one was ‘asking for the moon’ by getting firms and appointing three officers based in the country for the purpose.
“These are basic requirements. Let me reiterate emphatically that India does not need a lecture on freedom of speech and democracy from a profit-making company that stays in America. India has free and fair elections, an independent judiciary, media, civil society. Here I am talking to students and taking questions, and this is true democracy. So these profit-making companies should not lecture us on democracy,” he said.
The minister also holds a law and justice portfolio, he emphasised that,“When Indian companies go to do business in America, do they not follow American laws? You earn good money, good profits as India is a digital market, there is no problem. Criticize the prime minister, criticize me, ask tough questions, but why would you not obey Indian laws? If you want to do business in India, you have to follow India’s Constitution and India’s law.”
He also said that these firms have got three months to comply with the IT rules, the period expiring on May 26.
“I said I will give them extra time by a way of goodwill gesture. They did not comply. Therefore, it was exhausted because of the consequences of the law and not because of me. Now, what will happen? They will have to respond to court proceedings, investigative proceedings,” Prasad said.
