New Delhi: The ministry of information and broadcasting will set out a ‘Digital Media Ethics Code’ on the OTT and social platforms to regulate the type of content posted on them. The government wants social media to remove any explicit content that harms the user’s privacy from the platforms as early as possible and it must not take more than 36 hours to do so.
The new set of rules includes the following guidelines…
‘Due Diligence to Be Followed by Intermediaries’– if the due diligence is not followed, the safe harbor mechanism will not be improvised to them
‘Grievance Redressal Mechanism’– this shall be formed to address any grievance by victims of online harassments or other users
‘Ensuring Online Safety and Dignity of Users, Especially Women Users’– nudity, sexual act and other explicit content reported by any user shall be removed or disabled within 24 hours
‘Two Categories of Social Media Intermediaries’– this will divide the users into the category of ‘social media intermediaries’ and ‘significant social media intermediaries’ and there would be additional due diligence for the significant ones.
The new Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code depicts that for the first time would be controlled by the Govt of India. It was necessary to take such a step because the victims of social media are too many and they have very little to do when they face such online harassment.