With the passage of the Data Protection Bill in Parliament in the coming months, the regulatory framework for digital and data-driven companies will continue to evolve, define and tighten by 2022.
The explosive confrontation and standoff between the social media giants and the government marked a stormy start to 2021, and the year ahead promises to be just as action-packed as India brings in legislation to protect personal data, digital Enforces strict checks on platforms and controls border crossings. transfer of information.
The year started in turmoil for social media platforms when the government asked Twitter to block tweets and handles regarding farmers’ agitation over agricultural laws, which have now been revoked. Twitter complied, only to restore the accounts later, leading to a massive standoff between the microblogging platform and the government.
Matters only got worse for the microblogging platform as the government in subsequent weeks issued further notices to Twitter to remove accounts that were allegedly spreading misinformation and provocative content around farmers’ protests. It blocked access to the accounts of some prominent figures such as Punjabi singer Jazzybee, hip-hop artist L-Fresh the Lion and others in response to a legal demand in India.
Twitter took an aggressive stance and raised concerns about the safety of its employees in the country. It alleged that he was threatened by the police after Delhi Police searched his office premises in May.
The government has questioned Twitter’s “differential treatment” in the US Capitol Hill siege, where it took prompt action against “well-coordinated” campaigns around farmers’ protests from the platform Said.
Social media companies were also targeted globally for hate speech, misinformation and fake news on their platforms. India has emphasized on several occasions that although it fully supports foreign and Indian companies in leveraging the Internet as a “force of good”, it will take all measures to ensure that the Internet remains open. And don’t be dominated by big companies.
And this became apparent when the Center in February introduced tougher rules for social media and OTT platforms to make them more accountable to end-users in one of the world’s largest internet markets.
The rules required social media companies to swiftly remove controversial content, appoint grievance redressal officers and assist in investigations.
The critical social media intermediaries – which have over 50 lakh users – will have to follow additional due diligence including appointment of a Chief Compliance Officer, a nodal contact person and a Resident Grievance Officer, and all three officers will have to be resident in India. ,
The rules were controversial from the start as platforms expressed concerns over traceability mandates and short timelines for the appointment of key executives.
While platforms such as Facebook (now Meta) and Google complied with the rules by the May 26 deadline, Twitter – even after the deadline – did not appoint the requisite officials, losing its ‘safe harbour’ immunity. . ,
Non-compliance with the rules would result in these social media companies losing their intermediary status which exempts them from liabilities for any third party information and data hosted by them.
Twitter – which has clashed with the government several times this year, including by BJP leaders flagging posts as manipulative media – found itself in muddy waters after displaying a distorted map of India, which showed Jammu and Kashmir. Shown Kashmir and Ladakh as a separate country. , The glaring distortions added to the massive backlash from social media users.
In June, Twitter – which has more than 1.75 crore users in India – courted controversy again when it temporarily blocked the account of then IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for alleged violations of the US Copyright Act, a move Prasad termed the slogan as arbitrary and gross violation. The cases escalated only after IT rules removed the verified blue badge from several accounts, including the personal account of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.
A Twitter spokesperson said, “We value open lines of communication with the Indian government and share our commitment to working together towards building a digitally inclusive, secure and open Internet that encourages public interaction “
The spokesperson said India is a priority market for Twitter – one to which it is committed – and that it will continue to advance the level of proactive enforcement in the service and invest in technological solutions to combat abuse and the ever-evolving . Malicious online behavior.
In November, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey announced that Parag Agarwal would replace him in the top role. The India-born executive – who served as Twitter’s chief technology officer since 2017 – will have to navigate regulatory challenges in the markets and grow the user base and revenue.
Globally, big tech companies are also facing more scrutiny from regulators.
In India, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) is investigating whether Google has adopted anti-competitive, unfair and restrictive trade practices in relation to the Android operating system. In September, Google moved the Delhi High Court against the alleged leak of a CCI confidential report related to the probe against the tech giant.
2021 was also a remarkable year for domestic platforms like Ku, amid growing calls to expand the domestic digital platform’s ecosystem.
WhatsApp also had its share of trouble in 2021, beginning with a controversy over a privacy policy update, including how it processed user data and partners with Facebook to offer integration into the social media giant’s products. does.
The messaging app – which has 53 crore users in India according to government figures – had faced severe backlash in the country over user concerns that the data was being shared with parent company, Facebook (now Meta). Later, the company said that its updated privacy policy was put on hold until the data protection law comes into force in India.
WhatsApp had also moved the Delhi High Court challenging the new social media rules, arguing that the traceability provision is unconstitutional and against people’s fundamental right to privacy as underlined by the Supreme Court ruling .
During the year, controversy erupted over the alleged use of the Israeli spyware Pegasus for targeted surveillance in India. In October, the Supreme Court set up a three-member independent expert panel to investigate the alleged use of spyware for targeted surveillance in India.
Facebook – which rebranded the parent firm as Meta in October – also faced allegations that its system had developed hate speech and forged documents after thousands of internal documents were leaked by Frances Haugen, an employee of the Facebook integrity team, by May 2021. Blown the news.
In July, the guard of guard changed with bureaucrat-turned-politician Ashwini Vaishnav taking charge of the IT, electronics and communications ministry. Rajeev Chandrashekhar was named MoS in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
In November, MeitY released a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) on new social media and mediator guidelines to bring more clarity and explain the law, and promised that standard operating procedures would be followed soon. The SOPs around IT rules and intermediary norms will contain details of appropriate agencies, which will have the authority to issue takedown notices to the platforms.
As the year ended, a parliamentary panel presented its report, which recommended widening the scope of the proposed data protection law to include both personal and non-personal data, with a “single governance and regulatory body” Went. It has also recommended stricter norms to regulate social media platforms by holding them accountable for the content they host, while stressing that data should be stored in India and treated as sensitive and critical personal data. It is imperative to restrict access to it by classifying it as
Industry representatives have raised concerns over some of the recommendations, including non-personal data and expanded data localization mandates, saying these would harm people’s rights and affect businesses.
“The most worrying aspect of the changes is that the government has been given full authority over the data protection authority in terms of issuing directions to the authority. This would undermine DPAs and their ability to hold the government accountable for breaches,” said a digital policy expert. Nikhil Pahwa says
With the passage of the Data Protection Bill in Parliament in the coming months, the regulatory framework for digital and data-driven companies will continue to evolve, define and tighten by 2022.
And for social media companies in particular, their ‘timelines’ will be viewed through ‘filters’ of data privacy, user protection and compliance as per India’s new digital regulations.
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