NEW DELHI: Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said the government’s new rules IT are designed to prevent abuse and misuse of social media, and will empower users by providing a robust forum for grievance redressal.
“The rules only empower the ordinary users of social media when they become victims of abuse and misuse,” Prasad tweeted.
The new Rules are only designed to prevent abuse and misuse of social media.
Government welcomes criticism includin… https://t.
co/1lLT80959u— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) 1622095598000The statement comes amid a raging controversy that the new rules will infringe upon ‘right to privacy’ of social media and messaging app users.
The rules, that came into effect earlier this week, mandate that social media platforms with over 50 million users must appoint chief compliance officer, resident grievance officer and a nodal contact person.
For instant messaging app WhatsApp, the rules require breaking its ‘end to end encryption,’ that does not allow messages exchanged between users to be seen even by company staff.
WhatsApp has already moved court over the new rules, claiming they are “unlawful” and violate rights to privacy and freedom of expression.
Assuring WhatsApp users, Prasad said they have nothing to fear.
“Ordinary users of WhatsApp have nothing to fear about the new Rules.
Its entire objective is to find out who started the message that led to commissioning of specific crimes mentioned in the Rules,” Prasad added.
He added that the government welcomes criticism and the right to ask questions.
Facebook and Google have indicated to the government that they will be designating the required officers to comply with the new directives.
Twitter is yet to clarify its stand.
Read AlsoTwitter: Concerned about staff safety in India, need 3 more months to comply with new rulesTwitter Inc said on Thursday it was worried about the safety of its staff in India, days after police visited its office as part of a probe related to the social media firm’s tagging of certain posts as manipulated.
The company said on Thursday it was worried about the safety of its staff in India, days after Delhi Police personnel visited its offices in south Delhi and Gurugram to “serve notice” in connection with their probe into the controversial ‘toolkit’ case.
The government on Wednesday had staunchly defended its new digital rules, saying the requirement of messaging platforms like WhatsApp to disclose origin of flagged messages does not violate privacy, and went on to seek a compliance report from large social media firms.
(With PTI inputs)