Content offending women’s dignity to be removed in 24 hrs: Ravi Shankar Prasad

“The new intermediary guidelines clearly state that if the dignity of women is sought to be compromised, namely her nude or morphed photograph is displayed, the social media intermediary needs to remove it within 24 hours,” Prasad said.

New Delhi Union minister for electronics and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad informed Parliament on Thursday that any content that violates the dignity of women has to be taken down by a social media intermediary within 24 hours.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said as far as content gradation was concerned, the government will not interfere.(Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

“The new intermediary guidelines clearly state that if the dignity of women is sought to be compromised, namely her nude or morphed photograph is displayed, the social media intermediary needs to remove it within 24 hours,” Prasad said.

According to the new guidelines, first reported by Hindustan Times on February 25, the intermediary shall “within twenty-four hours from the receipt of a complaint made by an individual or any person on his behalf… in relation to any content which is prima facie in the nature of any material which exposes the private area of such individual, shows such individual in full or partial nudity or shows or depicts such individual in any sexual act or conduct, or is in the nature of impersonation in an electronic form, including artificially morphed images of such individual, take all reasonable and practicable measures to remove or disable access to such content which is hosted, stored, published or transmitted by it.”

Prasad said as far as content gradation was concerned, the government will not interfere. He added that the government welcomes dissent on social media, which has nearly 1.4 billion users in India.

“The issue is not the use of social media, it is the abuse of social media,” he said. “Any attempt to create imperialism of the internet by a few companies is not acceptable.”

The new guidelines have been welcomed by industry body IAMAI, but critics have said it may lead to over regulation of content. Large social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter are yet to officially comment on the rules. The guidelines cover social media intermediaries such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter. They also cover digital new media outfits and over the top content providers, such as Netflix and Hotstar.

The government notified three-tier self-regulatory guidelines on February 26. Intermediaries have within 30 to 90 days to comply with the same. Significant social media intermediaries, who have over five million users, have to appoint a compliance officer. At the apex of the grievance redress system is an interministerial committee that will be headed by an official from the ministry of information and broadcasting.

“The guidelines are very clear when it comes content that has to be taken down,” Prasad said. “It is 36 hours, when it comes to content regarding the unity, safety and security of India. We have added the dignity of women.”

The 36-hour timeline already exists under Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act, which grants the government power to take emergency action against such content. The minister drew the attention of the House to a debate in 2018, wherein Parliament debated issues revolving around fake news and safety of women. “A commitment was taken from me as the minister to strengthen the provisions around the same,” Prasad said.