Will carefully study new rules by govt of India, says Facebook

Social media giant Facebook has said it will carefully study the new rules introduced by the government of India related to digital media.

The Facebook Spokesperson welcomed the recognition from Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on the positive contributions of social media to the country.

"We have always been clear as a company that we welcome regulations that set guidelines for addressing today's toughest challenges on the Internet. Facebook is committed to people's ability to freely and safely express themselves on our platforms," the spokesperson said.

"The details of rules like these matter and we will carefully study the new rules that were just published. We acknowledge and appreciate the recognition from the Minister on the positive contributions of social media to the country. Facebook is an ally for India and the agenda of user safety and security is a critical one for our platforms. We will continue to work to ensure that our platforms play an enabling role in fuelling the exciting digital transformation of India," the spokesperson added.

As per the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, the Rules seek to empower the users by mandating the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, to establish a grievance redressal mechsm 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 15 days from its receipt.

To ensure online safety and dignity of users, especially women users, 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.

Such a complaint can be filed either by the individual or by any other person on his or her behalf.

According to the guidelines, users who wish to verify their accounts voluntarily shall be provided an appropriate mechsm to do so and provided with a demonstrable and visible mark of verification.

( With inputs from ANI )