About 38 crore people currently use social media in India. It is obvious that if 38 crore people are using something, then there should be some rules for that thing to operate smoothly in the country. However, these rules were not in India till now, but recently, after several ministers of the Central Government have run the gamut from large social media platforms like Twitter, the Government of India has now made some laws for the operation of social media platforms in India.
The Government of India has launched a new Code of Ethics for the operation of social media in India. In this new Code of Ethics, the Government of India has told social media and video streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video etc. about how to work in India.
Below I have listed all these rules.
For Social Media Websites
Every social media website or services in India now has to have a grievance officer who will record the complaint to the user and respond to the user’s complaint within three days, while fully resolving the complaint within thirty days.
Nude, Semi-Nude type content must be removed from the platform within 24 hours of receiving the complaint.
Social media services which have more than 50 lakh (not yet officially confirmed) users will have to follow some additional rules given below.
In addition to the Grievance Officer, Such social media websites will have to have their nodal and compliance officer in India. The nodal officer to which the Law Enforcement Agencies of India can contact at any time while the Compliance Officer will be able to talk about any rule.
These large social media websites will also have to display the number of complaints received each month and how many complaints they have resolved.
Any content has to be removed from the platform within 36 hours of the court ordering to remove the content from the platform.
Before banning any user’s account, the user has to tell about it and will have to bring such a way so that if the user wants, he can challenge this action of social media websites.
If the social media companies do not fulfill the above rules with responsibility, the Government of India will have every right to get it done.
These rules will become effective for social media websites in India within the coming three months.
For Online Video Streaming Platforms
In addition to social media websites and services, In the new code of ethics, the Government of India has also introduced new rules for online video streaming websites such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc. which I have listed below.
Streaming websites must create their own rules to censor content.
The streaming platform must categorize the content for different age groups with the U-Rating. For example, U(for all ages), U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A (adult content).
Children do not have to see any adult content on these streaming websites, for this, they have to bring a medium like parental lock.