Three Months Window For Social Media Platforms To Comply With New IT Intermediary Rules Expires on 25.05.2021

The three-month window that the Central Government provided to social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. to comply with the new social media rules, ends on 25.05.2021. The Information Technology (Guidelines For Intermediaries And Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 were notified by the Centre on February 25, 2021, to inter alia regulate the social media intermediaries by imposing a code of ethics and mandating a three-tier grievance redressal framework. The Rules provide 16-due diligence steps to be followed by intermediaries in India. This includes an obligation to not host, store or publish any information which is prohibited by virtue of it not being in the interest of public order; decency or morality; sovereignty and integrity of India; security of the State; etc. The Rules also empower Centre to ask messaging platforms like ‘WhatsApp’, ‘Facebook messenger’, ‘Telegram’ to trace the ‘first originator’ of messages.