Google Assures Compliance With India’s New Digital Rules, Says Will Keep Policies as Transparent as Possible

Assuring compliance with India's new IT rules, Google on Wednesday said that that it will continue to build on its existing approaches and keep the policies as transparent as possible.

The company was responding to the Centre's new IT rules, which will come into effect from today.

Google spokesperson in a statement said, "We realise that our work in keeping our platforms secure is never done and we will continue to refine our existing approaches, and evolve our policies and be as transparent as possible about how we make decisions."

It further cited its ''long history'' of managing content according to local laws to assure the Indian government of its continuing efforts to ensure legal compliance.

"We respect India'' legislative process and have a long history of responding to government requests to remove content where the content violates the local law or our product policies. We have consistently invested in significant product changes, resources, and personnel to ensure that we're combating illegal content in an effective and fair way, and in order to comply with local laws in the jurisdictions that we operate in," it added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Facebook said it aims to comply with the provisions of India's new IT rules and will continue to discuss the few issues "which need more engagement" with the government.

On February 25, the Centre framed the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, in the exercise of powers under section 87 (2) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and in supersession of the earlier Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011, which will come into effect from May 26.

The new guidelines issued by the government of India mandated a grievance redressal system for over the top (OTT) and digital portals in the country.

Briefing the media about the new rules on February 25, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said that though the government welcomes criticism and the right to dissent, "but it is very important for the users of social media to have a forum to raise their grievance against the misuse of social media."

Under the new rules, social media platforms will have to have a grievance redressal mechanism, they will also have to name a grievance officer who shall register the grievance within 24 hours and disposal in 15 days.

The government had said that if there are complaints against the dignity of users, particularly women - about exposed private parts of individuals or nudity or sexual act or impersonation, etc - social media platforms will be required to remove that within 24 hours after a complaint is made.

As per the guidelines, first, the social media platforms will have to have a chief compliance officer residing in India responsible for ensuring compliance with the act and the rules.

Second is a nodal contact person who should reside in India for 24X7 coordination with law enforcement agencies. Also, social media platforms have to appoint a resident grievance officer who shall perform the grievance redressal mechanism as indicated. They also will have to publish a monthly report about the number of complaints received and the status of redressal.