The future of many high-speed communications platforms after government sources revealed that Tech veterans who own these platforms have failed to comply with India's new telecommunications laws released in February. Big names like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have failed to meet certain deadlines under the new IT rules of the Center. This has led to repeated inquiries into the possibility of a ban on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter in India.
The center's new guidelines have been explained on social media
On February 25, the institute released The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 for managing content on OTT platforms and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. New IT guidelines have been released to make social media more complex and responsive to content that allows users to put you on their platforms.
With the new communications laws, platforms will be required to disclose the original founder of a tweet or message that may be relevant to Indian sovereignty, state security, foreign relations, rape, etc. in a move that sparked outrage, the government ordered that social media be banned under the law to remove any content marked by authorities within 36 hours. In addition, they had to establish a grievance redressal mechanism when a police officer was based in the country to resolve the matter.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter will be banned in India?
The Department of Technology and IT required all social media giants to appoint a compliance chief, head contact officer, and a resident complaints officer (employees living in India) within three months of ordering. Apart from the local Koo App, no other social media has complied with these rules, which has led to questions about whether it will be shut down on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, leading social media to fail to meet the three-month deadline.
Government sources also point out that social media has taken the initiative to offer 'common answers', such as seeking more time to provide compliance (up to 6 months in some cases) while others say they can't do anything before receiving instructions from their company headquarters in the USA.
So far, there is no certainty as to whether there will be a ban on Facebook, an Instagram ban, or a Twitter ban in India. However, sources indicated that the Agency was unhappy with the disrespectful response from these platforms and warned that failure to comply with these rules would result in companies losing their position and protection as intermediaries. In some cases, it may also give these companies liability for criminal activities in accordance with existing Indian laws.