Centre never threatened social media platforms with jail term, cleared IT Ministry

As per MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology), the government has never threatened employees of any social media platform. "None of the government communications, either written or oral, have ever threatened the employees of any of the social media platforms of jail term," MeitY clarified.

Reacting to the reports that suggest Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter employees being threatened with jail term, the IT Ministry said social media platforms are "obliged to follow the laws of India and the Constitution of India, just like all other businesses in India have to."

"As has been conveyed on the floor of Parliament, users of social media can criticise the government, the Prime Minister or any Minister but promotion of violence, rampant communal divide and stoking the flames of terrorism will have to be reflected upon," MeitY said, as per news source.

The IT Ministry has cleared that as per the recent guidelines, the social media platforms only require to put in place a robust grievance redressal mechanism for its users.

"The government welcomes criticism and dissent. However, of late, repeated instances of abuse of social media to foment hate, discord and violence by terrorist groups from outside India and circulation of morphed images of women, revenge porn posing threat to the safety of users especially women users have become grave concerns."

Recently, a notice has been issued to Twitter by the Centre to take down hundreds of posts, accounts and hashtags that were spreading fake news and inflammatory speech on farmers' protests in the country.

Initially, Twitter did not comply but fell in line after the government showed the rule book that contained penal provisions. The IT ministry said Twitter is an intermediary and is obliged to obey "the direction of the government and refusal to do so will invite penal action under Section 69A of the Act".

The government's response came after Twitter "unilaterally" unblocked over 250 such accounts despite blocking them after the government's advice on January 1.

The new guidelines state the government wants social media companies to have a mechanism to address complaints from users and asks them to push a monthly compliance report as well. It wants social media intermediaries to have the following:

Chief Compliance Officer - who shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act and Rules

Nodal Contact Person - for 24x7 coordination with law enforcement agencies

Resident Grievance Officer - who shall perform the functions mentioned under the Grievance Redressal Mechanism.