Panels to be set up in 3 months for resolving Twitter, Facebook users' grievances
New Delhi, Oct 28: The government on Friday tweaked IT rules to pave way for setting up of grievance appellate panels, which will settle issues that users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other matters.
These committees will be able to review content moderation decisions by social media companies like Meta and Twitter.
The 'Grievance Appellate Committees' will be set up within three months, according to a gazette notification on Friday.
Incidentally, the move comes at a time when the CEO of electric car maker Tesla Inc, Elon Musk, has completed his USD 44-billion takeover of Twitter, placing the world's richest man at the helm of one of most influential social media apps in the world.
The
IT
rules
changes
have
been
in
the
works
for
months,
though,
ever
since
users
red-flagged
instances
of
digital
platforms
acting
arbitrarily.
The
latest
move
will
arm
the
users
with
a
grievance
appeal
mechanism
in
the
form
of
appellate
committees
that
will
look
into
complaints
filed
by
individuals
against
decisions
of
grievance
officers
of
social
media
platforms.
The
amendement
to
IT
rules
were
notified
on
Friday.
"The central government shall, by notification, establish one or more grievance appellate committees within three months from the date of commencement of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2022," the notification said.
Each grievance appellate committee will consist of a chairperson and two whole-time members appointed by the central government, of which one will be a member ex-officio and two shall be independent members.
"Any person aggrieved by a decision of the grievance officer may prefer an appeal to the grievance appellate committee within a period of thirty days from the date of receipt of communication from the grievance officer," it said.
The grievance appellate panel will deal with such appeal "expeditiously" and make an endeavour to resolve the appeal finally within thirty calendar days from the date of receipt of the appeal.