'Grievance Appellate Committee in 10-12 days; panel by November 30'

New Delhi: The government will, over the next 10-12 days, come out with proposed modalities and terms of references for 'grievance appellate committee' that will address social media users' unresolved complaints, and expects the panel to be in place by November 30, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Tuesday.

The minister asserted that compliance of IT rules and laws is not "pick and choose" or "cherry picking" option for social media platforms, and made it clear that the government will not be a mute spectator to tussle between platforms and citizens, if grievances of 'digital nagriks' are not being addressed effectively, despite being flagged. Chandrasekhar said that the government had been open to the industry coming up with an effective self-regulatory organisation structure (for user grievances), and had, in fact, waited almost 2.5 months even after the rules were ready, for the industry to respond with a firm proposal.

"I am saying even today, government is not interested in playing the role of appellate body. If the industry, working with consumer bodies, can come up with credible framework where appeals that lie unaddressed because of grievance redressal mechanism not being satisfactory, are addressed by SRO, we are still open to it," Chandrasekhar, minister of state for IT, said.

The tighter IT rules, notified last week, have set the stage for formation of government-appointed GACs which will settle issues that users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other matters.

"We will roll out the architecture, design and terms of reference of the GAC in the next 10-12 days and I will also assure you that nothing will be finalised or notified without consultation with both the consumers and the industry," Chandrasekhar said.

The draft will be followed by meetings and discussions to ensure "everyone is clear and satisfied with the goals, objectives of the GAC and how it will function both in terms of consumers as a stakeholder, as well as industry and platforms as stakeholders", the minister assured. "I see no reason why before November 30, we should not have a GAC in place," the minister said. The new amendments to IT rules impose a legal obligation on social media companies to take all out efforts to prevent barred content and misinformation, the government said on Saturday, making it clear that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook operating in India will have to abide by local laws and constitutional rights of Indian users.

The amended rules provide for setting up appellate committees which can overrule decisions of the big tech firms on takedown or blocking requests, where user grievance have remained unresolved despite being flagged.

The rules also have made it explicit for the intermediary to respect the rights accorded to the Indian citizens under the Articles 14 (non-discrimination), 19 (freedom of speech, subject to certain restrictions) and 21 (right to privacy) of the Indian Constitution.