Only big social media companies may face tougher norms

BENGALURU: The government plans to change the proposed rules for policing online content such that the tough monitoring measures and takedown rules apply only to big social media firms, according to a senior government official.

In 2018, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) proposed to amend the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 to make social media firms more accountable for the content that they host.

The IT Act currently provides a legal shield for technology intermediaries. Industry associations and cloud companies have objected to the proposed rules, which apply to all technology platforms despite it being framed to tackle the problem of ‘fake’ news on social media.