Govt withdraws draft proposal on social media appellate panels

A day after the Centre proposed to constitute grievance appellate panels to take final decision on social media takedowns by amending the Information Technology Rules, the government has withdrawn the draft note on the proposal.

Though there is no official announcement, the proposed draft amendment note was missing from the Ministry of Electronics Information Technology portal. Sources said a revised draft would be published again after incorporating some other issues.

The government has decided to revise Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 for this purpose.

The government will set up a task of the Grievance Appellate Committee or Committees to deal with appeals by users against the decision of the Grievance Officer for social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

The proposed move assumes significance against the backdrop of instances of accounts being blocked by social media platforms such as Twitter for alleged violation of respective community guidelines.

Commenting on the proposal, Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, tweeted saying, "Government is making a committee where you can file an appeal if you want something removed from social media, or want to contest removal by a social media company. This will be directly under ministerial supervision and tasked by bureaucrats. Consequences? Left to imagination."

According to the government, the new rules aim to regulate social media content, making such platforms more accountable.