New IT Rules: Govt panels to hear user appeals against social media platforms

Representational image. (Photo: dlxmdeia via Unsplash)

The Indian government will appoint grievance committees to hear users’ appeals against content moderation decisions taken by social media intermediaries like Meta, Twitter and others, according to a new amendment to the country’s information technology law notified on October 28.

“The Central Government shall, by notification, establish one or more Grievance Appellate Committees within three months from the date of commencement of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2022,” stated the gazette notification.

"Each Grievance Appellate Committee shall consist of a chairperson and two whole time members appointed by the Central Government, of which one shall be a member ex-officio and two shall be independent members."

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.

The modified law also says that intermediaries have to upload a report after they comply with each GAC order which is mandatory.

In June, when the draft amendments were first proposed and thrown open to the public for consultation, the ministry had reasoned its introduction as it had observed ‘many instances’ where grievance officers of intermediaries did not address grievances satisfactorily.

Earlier, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar told Moneycontrol, “Firstly, the grievance appellate committees will be digital, and they will be multiple. If there are 10,000 appeals, obviously there cannot be one GAC handling.”

“The government is not interested in sitting and becoming an appellate Committee. It is because you are not doing your job in the grievance level, that we are forced to create this committee,” Chandrasekhar had said.

The proposed creation of this committee has been questioned by industry bodies such as Nasscom and Asia Internet Coalition (AIC). For instance, Nasscom, which represents over 3,000 Indian companies, and AIC which represents Big Tech such as Twitter and so on questioned the independence of this proposed platform.

Twitter recently went to court against the Indian government regarding account and tweet blocking orders issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under Section 69A of the IT Act. Twitter in its petition has claimed that many of these orders did not meet the requirements of Section 69A.