Facebook has reiterated its support for the new government guidelines and is working to implement operational processes and aims to comply with the provisions of the IT rules that come into effect from May 26. The social media giant, however, said it continues to discuss ‘a few of the issues which need more engagement’ with the government.
This comes amid a deepening tussle between the Union government and other social media platforms over-regulation compliance. The Centre has already issued guidelines for the social media platform that comes into effect from May 26.
The new rules were announced in February which requires large social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to follow additional due diligence, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer.
According to the IT Ministry, the government has already issued norms and asked social media giants to appoint a grievance officer that would be a key requirement from day one of rules coming into effect.
Non-compliance with rules would result in these social media companies losing the intermediary status that provides them exemptions from liabilities for any third-party information and data hosted by them.
In a statement on Tuesday, a Facebook spokesperson said: “We aim to comply with the provisions of the IT rules and continue to discuss a few of the issues which need more engagement with the government. Pursuant to the IT rules, we are working to implement operational processes and improve efficiencies.”
Facebook remains committed to people’s ability to freely and safely express themselves on our platform, the spokesperson added. The company, however, did not divulge additional details.
On February 25, the government had announced tighter regulations for social media firms, requiring them to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours and setting up a robust complaint redressal mechanism with an officer being based in the country.
The government had set 50 lakh registered users as the threshold for defining ‘significant social media intermediary’, meaning that large players like Twitter, Facebook and Google would have to comply with additional norms.
Announcing the guidelines in February, the Union government said that new rules take effect immediately, while significant social media providers (based on a number of users) will get three months before they need to start complying. The three-month time period meant compliance by May 25.
