While a 'self-regulatory body' under the Centre’s oversight will oversee compliance with a 'Code of Ethics' that could be open to interpretation, so long as it does not exceed its brief and misuse its authority to play censor, this should not be a worry. Its role will be under watch, too.
Amit Shah's comments came hours after the government announced sweeping regulations for social media firms like Facebook and Twitter as well as OTT platforms such as Netflix, requiring them to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours and set up a complaint redressal mechanism with an officer based in the country.
Reasonable regulation is democratic, but the moral panic around big tech is muddying the waters.
The rules borrow heavily from the existing regulations and structure governing the television media, including content codes and grievance redressal structure.
Digital news media has been brought under the purview of Section 69(A) of the IT Act.
Ravi Shankar Prasad said that social media platforms will have a provision for voluntary verification of the users.
The 29-pages-long document lists guidelines regarding due diligence, grievance redressal and self-regulation for news portals, social media and OTT platforms.
These platforms were hitherto ungoverned and this would be the first attempt by the government to regulate them. According to the new guidelines, these intermediaries will fall into two categories based on their user base—social media intermediary and significant social media intermediaries.
NBCUniversal Formats is the international sales division for all formats created within the production, broadcast and streaming divisions of NBCUniversal and Sky Studios, as well as select third parties.
Revenue sharing deals between tech platforms and big news firms may leave consumers worse off.