Indian Government Revises Rules for Social Media Companies to Protect Constitutional Rights
The Indian Government is revising the rules for social media companies like Facebook and Instagram which seems a necessary step to protect the constitutional right of the Indians.
Highlights
- New rules were proposed earlier and then abruptly withdrew
- There are no changes except explanations of the need for law
- The tension between the government and Twitter surged last year
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On Monday, the Indian government reissued new rules on social media companies that it proposed and then abruptly withdrew last week, nothing changed but explaining that the law was needed because such companies have violated the constitutional rights of Indians.
India last week released a draft of changes to its IT law that would require companies to “respect the rights accorded to the citizens under the constitution of India” and make a new government panel hear appeals of the companies’ content moderations decisions.
The draft was again released by the government on Monday without making any changes and solicited public comments within 30 days. For the first time, New Delhi explained its reasoning.
“A number of (technology) intermediaries have acted in violation of constitutional rights of Indian citizens,” said the government official without naming any of the company’s names for any specific rights.
The central government, under the ruling of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has had strained relations with many big companies, and continuously the government has been imposing tough guidelines on platforms Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
The relationship between the social media platform Twitter and India’s Central Government turn to be hostile when the platform denied to obey the orders to take down accounts that the government said were throwing some misleading content on the platform related to the ongoing national protest in the country.
The central government proposal would compel the companies to “take all the reasonable measures to ensure accessibility of its services to users along with the reasonable expectation of due diligence, privacy, and transparency.”
The social media platforms YouTube, Google, and Twitter did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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