Committees for Grievance Redressal of Social Media Users

Committees for Grievance Redressal of Social Media Users

Subject : Governance

Context : A gazette notification was issued by the Ministry Of Electronics And Information Technology recently to amend the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Concept :

Grievance Appellate Committees

• Grievance Appellate Committees will be set up within three months by the government for resolving social media users’ grievances.
• Each Grievance Appellate Committee will consist of a chairperson and two whole time members appointed by the Central Government.
• Any person aggrieved by a decision of the Grievance Officer may prefer an appeal to the Grievance Appellate Committee within a period of thirty days from the date of receipt of communication from the Grievance Officer.
• It also states that the Grievance Appellate Committee will adopt an online dispute resolution mechanism.
• Grievance Appellate Committee has been introduced for hearing appeals against decisions of the Grievance Officer appointed by the intermediary.
• Privacy policy and user agreements of intermediaries are to be made available in the Eighth Schedule Indian languages.

Grievance Redressal Mechanism under IT Rules 2021:

• Intermediaries shall appoint a Grievance Officer to deal with complaints and share the name and contact details of such officers.
• Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within twenty four hours and resolve it within fifteen days from its receipt.

About New IT Rules 2021

• The government has notified Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules on February 2021.
• These new rules broadly deal with social media and over-the-top (OTT) platforms.
• These rules have been framed in exercise of powers under section 87 (2) of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 and in supersession of the earlier Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011.