India imposes new rules on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

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The rules require every social media company to create three roles in India: a “compliance officer” who ensures that they comply with local laws; a “complaints officer” who will handle complaints from Indian users about their platforms; and a “contact person” who is available 24/7 to Indian law enforcement. The companies will also have to publish a compliance report every month detailing how many complaints they have received and what action they have taken.

Social media platforms will also be required to remove certain types of content, including posts with “full or partial nudity”, a “sexual act” or “impersonation with altered images”.

Major social networks, which India will soon define by number of users, will be given three months to comply with the policy changes, while smaller ones are expected to comply immediately, the government said.

The new rules follow a tense standoff between Twitter and the Indian government. Twitter recovered several accounts ordered by the government to be removed for using so-called “incendiary and baseless” hashtags about farmers protesting new agricultural reforms. The platform eventually deleted hundreds of accounts and partially restricted others, but drew a line by refusing to block accounts of journalists, activists, and politicians.
At the same time, the rules signal a greater willingness on the part of countries around the world to rein in large tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter that governments fear have become too powerful with little accountability.
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“Social media is welcome to do business in India – they have done extremely well, they have done good business, they have generated a large number of users and they have also empowered ordinary Indians,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Indian minister for electronics and information technology, told reporters Thursday. But he said that while the government “welcomes criticism and the right to dissent,” technology companies should do more “against the abuse and misuse of social media.”

Facebook said it would study the new rules “carefully.” “We have always been clear as a company that we welcome rules that provide guidance on how to tackle the toughest challenges facing the Internet today,” a company spokesperson told CNN Business. “Facebook is an ally for India and the user safety and security agenda is critical to our platforms.”

Twitter and Google, owner of YouTube, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Some other provisions in the Indian rules could become a bit more contentious, notably a requirement to track down the “first sender” of problematic messages or posts that go viral. WhatsApp, Facebook’s mobile messaging app hugely popular in India, has opposed those requirements in the past, saying it should break the app’s end-to-end encryption.
Prasad also pointed out the difference between the way social media platforms reacted to events in the United States and India, as opposed to the Capitol Hill riots on January 6 involving the violent clashes between Indian police and protesters in New Delhi’s Red Fort. A few weeks later. (The Indian government previously criticized Twitter for taking immediate action against several accounts after the Capitol Hill riot while doing so in India “reluctantly, reluctantly and with great delay.)

“If there is an attack on Capitol Hill in Congress, the social media supports the police action, but if there is an aggressive attack on the Red Fort, the symbol of India’s freedom … there is a double standard”, he said. “This is unacceptable.”

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The escalation in India presents a particular challenge for Silicon Valley, as the South Asian country represents one of its largest markets. India has more internet users than any other country except China, but the government has shown a growing tendency in recent years to regulate and restrict (or even ban) foreign technology companies.

During Thursday’s press conference, Prasad quoted industry estimates that show how important India is to these companies: WhatsApp has 530 million users in the country. The flagship of Facebook platform has 410 million users and Instagram, owned by Facebook, 210 million. YouTube and Twitter have about 450 million and 17.5 million users, respectively, he said.

CNN’s Esha Mitra contributed to this report.

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