The Government of India on February 25, 2021 issued intermediary guidelines and digital ethics code on social media platforms and over-the-top (OTT) services.
- Part- II of these rules shall be administered by the Ministry of Electronics and IT, while Part-III relating to Code of Ethics and procedure and safeguards in relation to digital media shall be administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Rules administered by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Social Media)
- The intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, shall establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving resolving complaints from the users or victims.
- Intermediaries shall appoint a Grievance Officer to deal with such complaints and share the name and contact details of such officer.
- Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within fifteen days from its receipt.
- Intermediaries shall remove or disable access within 24 hours of receipt of complaints of contents that exposes the private areas of individuals, show such individuals in full or partial nudity or in sexual act or is in the nature of impersonation including morphed images etc. Such a complaint can be filed either by the individual or by any other person on his/her behalf.
- Intermediaries shall appoint a Chief Compliance Officer who shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act and Rules. Such a person should be a resident in India.
Digital Media Ethics Code Relating to Digital Media and OTT Platforms to Be Administered by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting:
- The OTT platforms, called as the publishers of online curated content in the rules, would self-classify the content into five age based categories.
- Publishers of news on digital media would be required to observe Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council of India and the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act thereby providing a level playing field between the offline (Print, TV) and digital media.
