Government Tells SC That It Needs 3 Months To Notify Final Revised Intermediary Norms For Social Media Platforms

The central government has told the Supreme Court that it would require three months to notify the final revised intermediary guidelines for social media platforms in an affidavit filed by it in the Facebook petition.

The time frame was sought by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in an affidavit it filed in response to the Facebook petition, where the social media company has sought the transfer of all cases pending against it to the Supreme Court.

The government has stated in its affidavit that the process to notify the rules would require the approval of the MeitY minister. The rules would have to be vetted by the Union Law & Justice Ministry which would have to clear the updated draft by the MeitY. The entire process would get completed by January 15, 2020, the government has stated in its affidavit to the Supreme Court.

The MeitY stated in its affidavit that due to the complexity involved and the significant impact it would have on netizens, government departments, social media platforms, websites and mobile apps, a “conscious” and “bona fide” decision was made to call for further inter-ministerial consultation so that effective, robust and comprehensive rules covering all aspects of the matter could be framed.

The government affidavit has also stated that it had informed the Parliament to bring guidelines to make intermediaries more liable towards content which is published and transmitted on their platforms.

The draft Information Technology Intermediaries Guidelines Amendment) Rules, 2018, was then notified, which subsequently received 171 comments, and were published on the ministry's website on February 4.

Incidentally, in August, Facebook and its WhatsApp service had sought the transfer of all petitions on linking social media accounts with Aadhaar from various high courts to the Supreme Court.

It may be recalled that during a previous hearing on September 24, the Supreme Court had mentioned that the main issue arising in the petitions is how and in what manner intermediaries should provide information on the names of originators of any messages or content shared on social media platforms.