Govt appoints 3 committees to hear user appeals against social media platforms

In a first, the Union government on January 27 notified the appointment of three grievance appellate committees, which will hear user appeals against content moderation decisions of social media platforms.

The provision for such committees was brought through an amendment to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, in October last year.

The ex officio chairpersons of the three notified committees will be -- Chief Executive Officer, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Ministry of Home Affairs; Joint Secretary in charge of Policy and Administration Division in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; and Kavita Bhatia, Scientist G in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

According to the notified rules, any user aggrieved by a decision of an intermediary's own grievance officer can appeal to the government-appointed Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) within a period of 30 days.

The GACs shall try to resolve the issue within 30 days and may also seek assistance from experts. The panels will adopt an online dispute resolution mechanism so that the entire appeal process, from filing of appeal to the decision thereof, is conducted digitally.

When the idea for such a provision in law was first floated in June last year by the Meity, it surprised both internet activists and industry players. At the time, social media platforms went into a huddle and came up with the idea of creating a self-regulatory body to pre-empt the need for government supervision.

Later, in an interview with Moneycontrol, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State (MoS) at Meity, said he waited in earnest for the self-regulatory body to come up. But, the ministry had to go ahead with including GACs in the law as social media intermediaries failed to come to a consensus for self-regulation.