What are the changes made by the Indian government? How will the big social media companies be affected by this change?
How does it reshape the user experience? In the next 6 minutes of reading. We are going to answer all of your questions regarding the latest social media rules.
Do you know, India has more than 560 million internet users?
Which makes it the 2nd highest internet-using country in the world after China (854 million). The county has become crucial for social media marketers. The decisions taken by the Indian government have an intense effect on these markets.
In the month of February 2021. The Indian government has announced a number of social media rules, OTT(over-the-top) platforms, and digital media.
No doubt, it is a challenging moment for gigantic social media companies. Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Netflix, etc, like big brands, are now in a rush for the required changes.
India’s IT, Law, and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said
“Millions of people are using these social media sites in India. I welcome them. They can expand in India and can earn in billions, I have no objection to that. The matter is not about its merit but the raising demerits”
He also discussed how social media is used unlawfully. Spreading violence and insensitive content.
These companies should make sure these contents should not flourish on their sites. And strictly restrict the sharing of which should be taken down as soon as possible.
| Social Media sites | Users ( India) |
| 410 million | |
| 210 million | |
| 175 million | |
| 530 million | |
| Youtube | 448 million |
| OTT Platforms | User ( India ) |
| Disney Hotstar | 34.5 million |
| Amazon Prime Video | 100 million |
| Netflix | 5 million |
| Voot | 1 million |
| ALTBalaji | NA |
| SonyLiv | 5.5 million |
Table of Contents
What Are India’s Latest Social Media Rules?
The rules were imposed over all the social media sites and OTT platforms after the shocking statement of Twitter.
New social rules are in operation since 2018. But come weeks after the incident on Twitter.
The latest rules are:
- The companies have to submit a report about their customer services. Which includes complaints and every sort of help-support reported by the users.
- The firms also need to take serious action according to the complaints. And deposit the complete data about the actions they have taken for each complaint.
- Now, the user can verify their account whenever they wish to do so. (with a certain periodic gap from the last verification)
The new rules will be imposed immediately after the “notice” comes into the limelight.
And the rules should have serious consequences if the firms fail to comply.
What Are Firms Doing About The Social Media Rules?
The big giant companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc, were already complying with the latest social media rules.
The government is also putting keen eyes on the activities of these companies.
These companies had already shown their appointed posts and positions to look over the grievance of the customer.
The CEO of Google, Sunder Pichai already stated his actions regarding the new social media rules.
The company started forming official agencies to keep a keen sight of the local areas.
According to some new reports, the big giants like Facebook, Google and WhatsApp have already submitted the required information as per the new rule.
However, Twitter is delaying the demand. The actions are unclear right now.
These social media sites have a huge market in the country.
They don’t want to take any risk, which will further end up banning their sites.
The companies made lots of changes to get fit into Indian government under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, as part of Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.
How Does It Reshape The User Experience?
The user experience is what ultimately matters. These rules will give lots of flexibility to it’s users and provide you an assured platform.
WhatsApp and signal, the messaging apps, have to reduce the end -to end encryption. This will track the weakened messages . And the first originator could be found.
New, every user can have a blue tick in their profile. The only condition is that you have to complete verification. The user has to complete the KYC process to get verified.
Almost all the social media sites will provide you with the latest interface and will provide you with the tag system to declare your profile verification.
Facebook and twitter will definitely provide the users with certification badges.
Although WhatsApp is registered with a mobile number still it can pop up with a new feature of the tag to ensure your verification.
Conclusion
Definitely, you are going to have a smoother and safer user experience.
The government has already activated this law due to the heavy demand of the citizens and they are wanting something safer.
A site where most of the users spend their maximum time must be safe. This is an initiative taken by the indian government.
Surely the government is planning to broaden its area, due to the rising number of violence and trolls.
Illegal messages and site contents were not providing a healthy platform.
The new social media rules require firms to not just enable them but also to keep it active forever.
Reference
Aniket Mandal
ConteNt writer
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