Government Informs Rajya Sabha Of Social Media Compliance With IT Rules

The government shared compliance data on Thursday with Rajya Sabha on six social media platform - YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Koo and Twitter. These are among the 'significant social media intermediaries' (SSMIs) defined under the new IT rules rolled out this year, having more than 50 lakh users.

Though the government also named LinkedIn, ShareChat, Telegram, JioChat and MyGov as SSMIs, it shared compliance data for only the aforementioned companies as key extracts related to social media grievances in India.

The data has been taken from the websites of the SSMIs, which are now required to mention compliance reports monthly on their websites.

The response also says that incase SSMIs do not comply with the new rules, these platforms are liable to lose their 'intermediary' status or exemption under Technology Act, 2000, that grants them safe harbour immunity.

The response in Rajya Sabha was given by Minister of Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, to Sushil Kumar Modi, a Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament from Bihar and a former finance minister and deputy chief minister of the state.

The new rules lay out how social media platforms, digital media and OTT platforms would now need to be under set regulations, such as have tiers of grievance redressals, and the appointment of compliance officers who are residents of India.

Also Read: Govt Announces New Rules For Digital Media, OTT And Social Media Platforms

Here's how each company has complied with these rules.

1. Facebook

Facebook's reporting comes for both Facebook and Instagram through the Indian redressal mechanism,

From May 15 to June 15, Facebook received 646 reports and responded to all of them.

For the same period, Instagram received 36 reports and too responded to all of them.

2. Twitter

Twitter received 38 grievances and and took action against 133 URLs, says the data.

These figures are from May 26 to June 25, and they have been reported through their Grievance Officer - India.

Also Read: India Leads In Number Of Govt Info Requests: Twitter Transparency

3. WhatsApp

For the period between May 15 and June 15, WhatsApp received 345 complaints and sanctioned 63 accounts.

4. Koo

For the period of June 2021, the data says that 5,502 koos were reported. Of these, 1,253 koos were removed, whereas 'other action' such as warning, blurs, overlays were taken against the remaining 4,249.

5. Google (YouTube)

For the period of April 2021, YouTube received 27,762 complaints and took 59,350 "actions of removal."

The reply also says that the platforms have taken certain proactive actions against content that goes against their policies, but did not provide any specific examples of such actions.

Find the response here.