'Committed to provide level playing field: Amit Shah lauds guidelines on OTT, social media

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday appreciated the Centre for introducing guidelines to regulate the social media, digital media and OTT platforms. He praised Union Minister of Law & Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad and Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar to introduce the guidelines under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Taking to Twitter with the hashtag 'Responsible Freedom', he said the Modi government is committed to providing a level playing field for all digital media and OTT platforms and the new guidelines for social media will further empower the users and ensure resolution for their grievances. 

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Centre introduces new guidelines to regulate OTT platforms and social media

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar while laying down the guidelines for OTT platforms, said "the way print media has press council, Films had censor board, TV channels there is program code, OTT platforms had no such arrangement to regulate the content."

Prakash Javadekar said the government has decided to have a three-tier mechanism for regulation of OTT platforms. These include - Information, Self-regulation, and Oversight.

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Speaking on the guidelines for social media, Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also pressed on the need to empower ordinary users of social media by stating that crores of social media users should be given a proper forum for resolution of their grievances in a time-bound manner against the abuse and misuse of social media.

He said the new guidelines have come in view of concerns being raised about the abuse and misuse of social media by spreading hate content and fake news. He said the Supreme Court directed the government to frame guidelines to eliminate contents which include child pornography, gang rape images, etc. The social media platforms will now require to share the originator of any mischievous post 

Social media platforms on being asked either by court or govt authority will be required to disclose the first originator of mischievous tweet or message. This should be in relation to the sovereignty of India, the security of the state, relations with foreign states, rape etc. The social media will now require to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act & Rules, Nodal Contact Person, Resident Grievance Officer.