Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code came into effect

The Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, simply known as the new rules for social media platforms and digital news outlets came into effect.

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The guidelines had asked all social media platforms to set up a grievances redressal and compliance mechanism, which included appointing a resident grievance officer, chief compliance officer and a nodal contact person.

The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology had also asked these platforms to submit monthly reports on complaints received from users and action taken.

A third requirement was for instant messaging apps was to make provisions for tracking the first originator of a message.

Failure to comply with any one of these requirements would take away the indemnity provided to social media intermediaries under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.

According to the Section 79, any intermediary shall not be held legally or otherwise liable for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted on its platform.

This protection, the Act says, shall be applicable if the said intermediary does not in any way, initiate the transmission of the message in question, select the receiver of the transmitted message and does not modify any information contained in the transmission.