Govt wants social media platforms to take legal action against users posting CSAM content

Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar (centre), NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo (right) at a meeting held with social media platforms in New Delhi on January 11

In an effort to address the issue of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on social media platforms, the Indian government is urging platforms not only to remove such content but also to initiate legal proceedings against users who upload it.

As per sources, the government intends to invoke the "bystander rule" of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on social media platforms. This rule imposes a mandatory duty on all bystanders and other witnesses of child abuse or rape to report such incidents to the police.

Under the POCSO Act, "any person who has the knowledge of commission of an offence against a child, and fails to report such offence to the police is penalised with incarceration or a fine, or with both."

This was communicated to social media platforms during a meeting between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) held on January 11.

The meeting was chaired by the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar. NCPCR Chairperson, Priyank Kanoongo, was also present at the meeting. Attendees included representatives from social media platforms such as Telegram, Meta, Google, Snap, ShareChat, and others.

Sources said that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) may amend the Information Technology (IT) Rules to include a "bystander rule" in cases of CSAM content and so on.

Moneycontrol has reached out to Telegram, ShareChat, Meta, Google, Snap with queries in this regard, and the article will be updated when a response is received.

Under the IT Rules, CSAM falls under one of the 11 types of content that are prohibited for users to upload on any platform. Earlier, MeitY had directed social media platforms to amend their terms and conditions and explicitly list out the prohibited content as under the IT Rules.

This meeting comes a few days after NCPCR issued a summons to YouTube regarding the availability of “indecent” video "challenges" featuring mothers and their children. Maharashtra Police also registered an FIR against the platform and a YouTube channel operator regarding such videos.

A YouTube executive has been summoned to the NCPCR office on January 15 to make a physical appearance "along with the list of all such challenges running on YouTube and list of channels on YouTube running such challenges involving minors".

In October 2023, MeitY issued notices to social media platforms X (formerly Twitter), YouTube and Telegram, directing them to remove CSAM from their platforms on the Indian internet.

The government had warned that non-compliance with these notices may result in the loss of safe harbour protection that social media platforms enjoy under Section 79 of the IT Act. A loss of safe harbour would imply that platforms would be liable for third-party content published on the platform.