The Centre on Thursday announced new guidelines to curb misuse of social media platforms and regulate the OTT platforms. The rules prescribe due diligence that must be followed by intermediaries, including social media intermediaries. Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within twenty four hours and resolve it within fifteen days from its receipt. Two categories of social media intermediaries: To encourage innovations and enable growth of new social media intermediaries without subjecting smaller platforms to significant compliance requirement, the Rules make a distinction between social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries. Government is empowered to notify the threshold of user base that will distinguish between social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries.

Source: Hindustan Times February 25, 2021 09:19 UTC