Editor's Pick: Dealing with social media grievances

The Minister of State for Electronics Rajeev Chandrasekhar Saturday defended the new amendments to the Information Technology rules, which were already a matter of debate since their introduction in 2021. The new amendments to the rules, which include the formation of the Centre’s Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs) that citizens will be able to approach if their grievance about a particular post on social media is not addressed by intermediaries such as Twitter. Mr. Chandrasekhar said with the tweaked rules, the government wanted to focus on making the Internet a safe, trusted, and accountable space for users. The amendments would ensure that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook respected the rights accorded to citizens under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution, he added. Asked about the criticism that the Centre-appointed GACs would give the government power to moderate content on social media, the Minister dismissed it saying that content moderation was not an issue that was going to come to GACs at all. The government, he said, had been forced to introduce GACs due to the “casual” and “tokenism” approach of digital platforms towards user complaints in the past one year. In an interview with The Hindu after the amendments were adopted on Friday, Mr. Chandrasekhar said the IT rules laid a definite due diligence obligation on social media firms so that no unlawful content or misinformation was posted on their platforms. “Earlier, under due diligence, intermediaries had to only broadcast to users about not uploading certain categories of harmful/unlawful content,” he said, adding that all users got was a ‘thank you for sending your grievance, we will revert to you’ message from these platforms. The purpose of the GAC, he said, was to address unresolved grievances. He explained that while this was not an area the government wanted to get into, it had to do it “very reluctantly” owing to its obligation and duty toward the “digital Nagriks”, so that someone heard their grievances. With the new rules, intermediaries would also have to verify, within 72-hours, if information on a particular post was factual, which the Minister said was “enough time” to do so. The amended rules faced pushback from social media intermediaries when they were made public earlier this year. Notably, Twitter currently has a plea filed in the Karnataka High Court alleging that the government ordered it to arbitrarily take down some tweets. Multiple instances of platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook being ordered to take down or restrict certain content have been seen since 2021. When asked if the government would be sitting down with social media companies so that the new rules aid partnership with them, Mr. Chandrasekhar said he was working on that. He added, however, that social media companies had told the Centre in March that they did not want the GAC but a Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO) instead. The Minister said the government waited for two months but did not hear from the companies about an SRO. Incidentally, the timing of the adoption of the tweaked IT rules coincides with Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, with the Tesla owner wanting to make the platform a “common digital town square” where issues can be debated. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor‘s Pick and more. Click here. The Hindu’s Explainers Explained | Is the world’s climate action plan on track? Explained | What is the doctrine of pleasure? Explained | Why has Google got a second antitrust fine? The Hindu’s Daily Quiz The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP27, will be held in which country? Paris Spain Dubai Egypt To know the answer and to take the quiz, click here. [logo] Editor's Pick 30 OCTOBER 2022 [The Hindu logo] In the Editor's Pick newsletter, The Hindu explains why a story was important enough to be carried on the front page of today's edition of our newspaper. [Arrow]( [Open in browser]( [Mail icon]( [More newsletters]( Dealing with social media grievances The Minister of State for Electronics Rajeev Chandrasekhar Saturday defended the [new amendments to the Information Technology rules]( which were already a matter of debate since their introduction in 2021. The new amendments to the rules, which include the formation of the [Centre’s Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs)]( that citizens will be able to approach if their grievance about a particular post on social media is not addressed by intermediaries such as Twitter. Mr. Chandrasekhar said with the tweaked rules, the government wanted to [focus on making the Internet a safe, trusted, and accountable space for users](. The amendments would ensure that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook respected the rights accorded to citizens under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution, he added. Asked about the criticism that the Centre-appointed GACs would give the government power to moderate content on social media, the Minister dismissed it saying that content moderation was not an issue that was going to come to GACs at all. The government, he said, had been forced to introduce GACs due to the “casual” and “tokenism” approach of digital platforms towards user complaints in the past one year. [In an interview with The Hindu]( after the amendments were adopted on Friday, Mr. Chandrasekhar said the IT rules laid a definite due diligence obligation on social media firms so that no unlawful content or misinformation was posted on their platforms. “Earlier, under due diligence, intermediaries had to only broadcast to users about not uploading certain categories of harmful/unlawful content,” he said, adding that all users got was a ‘thank you for sending your grievance, we will revert to you’ message from these platforms. The purpose of the GAC, he said, was to address unresolved grievances. He explained that while this was not an area the government wanted to get into, it had to do it “very reluctantly” owing to its obligation and duty toward the “digital Nagriks”, so that someone heard their grievances. With the new rules, intermediaries would also have to verify, within 72-hours, if information on a particular post was factual, which the Minister said was “enough time” to do so. The amended rules faced pushback from social media intermediaries when they were made public earlier this year. Notably, [Twitter currently has a plea filed in the Karnataka High Court]( alleging that the government ordered it to arbitrarily take down some tweets. Multiple instances of platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook being ordered to take down or restrict certain content have been seen since 2021. When asked if the government would be sitting down with social media companies so that the new rules aid partnership with them, Mr. Chandrasekhar said he was working on that. He added, however, that social media companies had told the Centre in March that they did not want the GAC but a Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO) instead. The Minister said the government waited for two months but did not hear from the companies about an SRO. Incidentally, the timing of the adoption of the tweaked IT rules coincides with [Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover]( with the Tesla owner wanting to make the platform a “common digital town square” where issues can be debated. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor‘s Pick and more. [Click here.]( The Hindu’s Explainers [Arrow][Explained | Is the world’s climate action plan on track?]( [Arrow][Explained | What is the doctrine of pleasure?]( [Arrow][Explained | Why has Google got a second antitrust fine?]( The Hindu’s Daily Quiz The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP27, will be held in which country? - Paris - Spain - Dubai - Egypt To know the answer and to take the quiz, [click here.]( Today’s Best Reads [[Crush kills at least 151 at Halloween festivities in Seoul] Crush kills at least 151 at Halloween festivities in Seoul]( [[Minority in diversity: Sunak’s elevation and shifting lines of identity politics in India] Minority in diversity: Sunak’s elevation and shifting lines of identity politics in India]( [[Data | TV channels dominate as news source, despite poor trust levels: CSDS survey] Data | TV channels dominate as news source, despite poor trust levels: CSDS survey]( [[Heat waves cost poor countries the most, exacerbating inequality] Heat waves cost poor countries the most, exacerbating inequality]( Copyright @ 2022, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. 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