Data Protection Bill mandates e-KYC norms for social media companies

Data Protection Bill requires social media companies to create e-KYC like validation process. The validated users will get something like a blue tick or ‘visible mark of verification, which shall be visible to all users of the service’. This will turn companies like Facebook and Twitter into e-KYC firms, allowing government to identify the identity of each ‘verified profile’.

Experts feel this will, on the one hand, increase compliance costs for social media companies, while at the same time, allow government to track individuals on social media more effectively. In addition, the Bill has diluted the initial requirement of holding all personal data within the country, now allowing the processing of such data to be done outside.