The centre has republished a draft of proposed changes to the country’s technology and social media regulations. The move is aimed at providing more effective grievance redressal and to plug infirmities and gaps in the existing regulations.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has sought comments from the public within 30 days from publishing of the draft. The ministry also informed that a formal public consultation on the subject would be arranged by mid-June, 2022.
Citing reasons for revision, the ministry noted that while the IT Rules, 2021 provide for a robust grievance redressal mechanism, there have been many instances that grievance officers of intermediaries either do not address the grievances satisfactorily and/or fairly. In such a scenario, the need for an appellate forum has been proposed to protect the rights and interests of users.
The proposed amendments are expected to provide additional avenues for grievance redressal apart from courts, it will also frame new accountability standards for significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs), so as to ensure constitutional rights of Indian citizens are protected.
Further, MeitY aims to make sure that revised rules do not impact early stage or growth stage Indian companies or startups. In its draft proposal released earlier, MeitY had proposed the establishment of one or more grievance appellate committees for social media users, noting that such oversight would provide an alternative to users who do not agree with the decisions of the in-house grievance officers of an internet intermediary. This clause remains unchanged in the latest notification. Meanwhile, the suggestion that the grievance appellate committee endeavor to address the user’s appeal within a period of 30 days also remains in the latest version.
However, the amended release grants intermediaries a breather in the form of a safeguard which says that intermediaries may exercise due diligence to prevent misuse of their grievance redressal mechanism when any user submits inappropriate, trivial or inauthentic complaint.
