Twitter, FB Getting Banned in India? All You Need to Know About It
WhatsApp, Twitter, and platforms will lose their intermediary status if they fail to comply with new IT rules.
The talks about global social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp getting banned in India started doing rounds on Tuesday, 25 May.
The reason was Centre's new Information Technology (IT) rules which comes into effect from Wednesday, 26 May 2021.
The new rules were announced by the Central Government in February 2021. All social media organizations were given three months to accept the same.
As per the new IT rules introduced by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, these "significant social media intermediaries" will lose their intermediaries status, if they fail to comply with the new rules.
"Significant social media intermediaries" are those platforms which house more than 50 lakh users.
As per the new rules, social media giants have to follow additional due diligence and appoint a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person, and resident grievance officer, reported Hindustan Times.
The report further added that their non-compliance will lead to them losing "intermediaries status". Due to intermediaries status, they are spared from liabilities for any third-party information and data hosted by them.
Apart from Indian social media app Koo, which has 6 million users, no other social media giants have complied with the new rules.
However, as per a new development on Tuesday, 25 May, suggested of their intention to comply with the Centre’s new IT rules.
However, WhatsApp messengers have filed a lawsuit against the Indian government in Delhi High Court. The lawsuit seeks to block new regulations coming into force from Wednesday.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times)
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