India to Decide on Appeals Panel for Social Media’s Content Moderation

The authorities is contemplating whether or not to arrange an appeals panel with the ability to reverse the content material moderation choices of social media corporations, the data know-how ministry stated, in what could be the primary such transfer of its sort worldwide.

The revelation got here in a doc searching for feedback on plans for modifications to IT guidelines that took impact final yr, and goal to regulate social media content material, making corporations resembling Facebook, YouTube and Twitter extra accountable.

The doc, made public on Thursday, proposed a number of such enchantment panels. It set a deadline of 30 days for appeals towards choices by firm grievance officers, whereas the panels themselves get an extra 30 days to take up the matter.

Social media corporations are already required to have an in-house grievance redressal officer and designate executives to co-ordinate with regulation enforcement officers.

“The middleman shall respect the rights accorded to residents beneath the structure,” the draft guidelines say in a newly-added part, referring to social media corporations.

India ranks among the many largest sources worldwide of presidency requests for content material takedowns to Twitter and Meta.

Tension has flared between the federal government and Twitter, which declined final yr to comply absolutely with orders to take down accounts and posts accused of spreading misinformation about farmers’ protests towards the federal government.

Last yr, authorities officers stated social media platforms might now not be eligible to search legal responsibility exemptions as intermediaries or the hosts of consumer content material in the event that they failed to observe home info and know-how legal guidelines.

© Thomson Reuters 2022