Will Facebook, Twitter be banned in India? What are the new rules and here is what the companies are saying

New Delhi, May 26: There is speculation galore that social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook will be banned in India for non-compliance of the Centre's new guidelines under the Information and Technology Act.

The companies said that they were working on implementing the new rules that were notified on February 25. The social media companies were given three months time to implement the new rules, the deadline of which ended on May 25. There has been no extension of the deadline and according to the guidelines, the companies would lose intermediary status and face action if the rules are not complied with.

What the rules state?

Since these companies are not headquartered in India, they will have to appoint a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer. The platforms will be required to remove any content flagged by the authorities within 36 hours.

The rules say that the officer based in India will oversee a robust complaint redressal mechanism. A monthly compliance report with the details of the complaints redressal will have to be published.
Further it also says that if there is a message circulated on a social media person that undermines the sovereignty of India, the social media platform will have to identify the first originator of the message.

What the social media companies are saying?

Facebook: The company said that it is woking towards implementing the rules. It also said that it was discussing some issues with the government. Facebook has however brought in the provisions of voluntary verifications, grievance redressal and the 24 hour timeline to remove flagged content.

Twitter: The company has not commented on the status of complying with the rules.

Google: A spokesperson for Google said that it has been continuously fighting illegal content in a fair and effective manner. It is also working to comply with the local laws through consistent investment in the product changes, resources and personnel.

"We realise that our work in keeping our platforms secure is never done and we will continue to refine our existing approaches, and evolve our policies and be as transparent as possible about how we make decisions," Google also said.