Govt frames new code of ethics for social media and OTT platforms

New Delhi: The government on Thursday announced framing of new code of ethics to regulate the social media and OTT platforms.

Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, in a press conference, here, jointly averred that the focus of this guideline was on self-regulation. The new guidelines will supersede the 2011 rules.

Under the new guidelines, offensive posts shall have to be removed in 24 hours and the platforms will have to appoint a Chief Complaint Officer.

The platforms will also have to provide information about the person, who first posted the content.

While finalising these rules, both the Ministries of Electronics and Information Technology and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting undertook elaborate consultations among themselves, in order to have a harmonious, soft-touch oversight mechanism in relation to social media platform as well as digital media and OTT platforms etc.

The Information Ministry held consultations in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai over the last one-and-a-half year, wherein OTT players have been urged to develop “self-regulatory mechanism”.

The Government also studied the models in other countries, including Singapore, Australia, EU and the UK and gathered that most of them either have an institutional mechanism to regulate digital content, or were in the process of setting up one.

The guidelines related to Social Media will be administered by the Ministry of Electronics and IT, while the Digital Media Ethics Code Relating to Digital Media and OTT Platforms will be administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. (UNI)