According to Facebook, they have been working for months with the Indian government and local partners on a privacy law that comes into effect by May 26. The legislation will be able to curb unethical practices such as e-scammers who use the personal data of users without consent
The new IT laws in India will come into force from Wednesday this week which is when both Google and YouTube are also expected to comply.
Google’s statement on the recent uproar over content removed in India was informative, as they have a “long history of responding to government requests”. Google also made it clear that its long-term goal is one of compliance with local laws.
The statement from Google also covers all its platforms, including YouTube. Several internet majors were yet to meet the requirements till hours ago, setting them up for criminal activity that could cost billions of dollars in fines and penalties or prison time when enforced by Congress later this year
The demand was first announced last week as part of a House bill with bipartisan backing; however, it has not been passed into law at this stage.
Facebook is doing its best to comply with the IT rules. The company also noted that it has been working on operational processes and aims for compliance in 2019 which will be a major step forward since all organizations must adhere to these standards or face financial penalties up to Rs 10 lakh per day!
The new social media compliance rules, announced on February 25th, will require large platforms like Twitter and Facebook to follow additional due diligence. This includes appointing a chief compliance officer that ensures the company complies with these regulations as well as appoints a nodal contact person and resident grievance officers all of which help citizens if they are in need or there is an issue.
The government of the Republic has made it compulsory for any significant social media intermediary with more than 50 lakh registered users to comply with additional requirements by November 2018. Non-compliance will result in those companies losing their status as intermediaries which provides them exemptions and specified immunity from liability, leaving these firms liable to action by law enforcement agencies involved.
The Government requires all Significant Social Media Intermediaries (those who have over 50 Lakhs Registered Users) to be compliant with new rules or else they risk being subjected to legal actions taken up against them at a later date if found non-compliant in compliance.
Though Twitter has not commented on its compliance status, the microblogging platform had drawn flak from the government recently after it put a ‘manipulated media’ tag on tweets by BJP leaders.
WhatsApp, the social media giant with more than 200 million monthly active users in India, has not yet commented on its compliance with new IT rules. However Koo — one of WhatsApp’s Indian rivals — is already compliant and making changes accordingly.
Recently many large organizations, including the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the US-India Business Council (USIBC), have written to our government requesting a one-year extension for compliance. In light of this pandemic, we should be extra lenient with their requests.
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