Centre notifies GACs to look into complaints against social media firms

One panel will be chaired by the chief executive officer of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Friday formed three grievance appellate committees (GAC) for grievance redressal of complaints of social media users against decisions of grievance redressal officers of social media intermediaries.

Of the three, one will be led by the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Indian Cyber Coordination Centre (ICCC) of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), while the other two will be led by joint secretary in charge of Policy and Administration Division in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) and Kavita Bhatia, scientist in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

The panel led by the CEO of the ICCC has retired Indian Police Service officer Ashutosh Shukla and Sunil Soni, the former chief general manager and chief information officer of Punjab National Bank as whole-time members for a period of three years.

The second panel, led by the joint secretary of I&B ministry will have retired Commodore Sunil Kumar Gupta and Kavindra Sharma, the former vice president of L&T Infotech.

The third panel, led by Kavita Bhatia, a scientist in the IT ministry, has Sanjay Goel, a retired Indian Railway Traffic Service officer and Krishnagiri Ragothamarao Murali Mohan, the former managing director and CEO of IDBI Intech.

The Committees set up by the government to look into users' complaints against large social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will commence operation from March 1. The appeals can be made on https://www.gac.gov.in

The Committee's set up as per an amendment to IT Rules 2021 notified in October. In the amendment to the IT Rules of 2021, the government had introduced the concept of GACs to hear complaints of social media users against the decisions of grievance redressal officers of the intermediaries.

Earlier this year, the IT ministry had invited applications for the post of the chairperson as well as whole-time members of the GAC.

The government had then said that the chairperson as well as the members of the committee should have knowledge or experience of the functioning of online intermediaries, including social media intermediaries.

The IT rules 2021 provide for creating avenues for grievance redressal apart from Courts and ensure that the Constitutional rights of Indian citizens are not contravened by any Big-tech Platform, the Ministry said in a statement.

Users will have the option to appeal against decision of the grievance officer of the social media intermediaries and other online intermediaries before this new appellate body. The Committee will endeavour to address the user’s appeal within a period of 30 days, said the statement.

During the public consultations on the IT Rules, Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar had said that robust grievance redressal system to ensure accountability of all Internet platforms offering a service or product, was an unambiguous goal and that all grievances must be 100% addressed.