NEW DELHI: Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (IT) Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday said the government would assist citizens in filing FIRs against social media platforms for violation of IT rules.
The minister said social media platforms have been given seven days to align their terms of use with the IT rules. After a meeting with the representatives of the social media platforms, he said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) will develop a platform on which users will be able to notify about IT rule violations by these platforms.
Through this portal, people will be able to notify authorities about objectionable and misleading content such as deepfakes or CSAM (child sexual abuse material) on social media platforms. The minister said FIRs will be registered against the intermediary, and if they disclose the details of the origin of the content, FIR will be filed against the entity that posted the content.
“There is zero tolerance for violations of IT rules in the country. The Meity will assist users in easily notifying it about violations of IT rules and assist them in filing FIRs,” said Chandrasekhar. He also informed social media platforms that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will designate a Rule 7 officer who will create a platform where it will be very easy for citizens to bring to the attention of the government their allegations of violation of law by these platforms and the officer will respond accordingly.
“Rule 7 officer will also be a person who will create a platform where it will be very easy for citizens to bring to the attention of the Government of India their notices or allegations or reports of violation of law by the platforms. And the Rule Seven officer will take that digital platform information and respond accordingly. So, we will make it very simple for the citizen to report violations of law by platforms to the government,” said the minister.
These developments came on the heels of an Artificial Intelligence-generated deepfake video featuring actress Rashmika Mandanna on various social media platforms.