Will Facebook, Twitter Face Ban In India Wednesday?

Even as the Indian government wages an uphill battle to contain the raging second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is taking up cudgels against social media giants for not complying with new regulations it recently laid down.

What Happened: The Indian government gave a deadline of May 25 for big social media companies to fall in line with the guidelines drawn up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, or MEIT.

The MEIT announced in late February stricter regulations for social media platforms that include taking off any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours.

The regulations also require setting up of a robust complaint redressal mechanism, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact officer and a grievance officer, all stationed in India.

Identification of the first originator of messages shared on the platforms is also required under the new rules.

What It Means For Facebook, Twitter: Facebook, Inc. FB and its Instagram and WhatsApp, and Twitter, Inc. TWTR, which boasts of registered users in excess of the 5-million threshold set by the Indian government for a significant social media intermediary, may have to comply with the additional regulations.

Failure to comply with the new guidelines by the deadline will result in the social media platforms losing intermediary status. It is on account of the intermediary status that these companies are exempted from liabilities for third-party information hosted on the platforms.

Neither Facebook nor Twitter has reportedly taken any measures thus far toward achieving compliance, although the former said it intends to adhere to the new rules.

"We aim to comply with the provisions of the IT rules and continue to discuss a few of the issues which need more engagement with the government. According to the IT rules, we are working to implement operational processes and improve efficiencies," a Facebook spokesperson reportedly said.

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Why It's Important: Twitter has had run-ins with the Indian government recently over content criticizing the government's handling of the COVID-19 crisis transmitted on its platforms. The government had in the past asked social platforms to take down content that it termed as misinformation.

For Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG-owned YouTube, a ban in India would mean losing millions of users from the second most populous country, which presents a rapidly growing market.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg said late last year that India is a very special and important country where millions use the company's products. Some of the new features are tested in India before being rolled out globally, he added.

Twitter has about 17.5 million users in India, ranking second only to the U.S. and Japan, according to Statista.

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