The government modified IT regulations on Friday to make it possible for the creation of grievance appellate panels, which would resolve any concerns consumers may have about how social media sites first handled their complaints about content and other issues.
These committees will be able to examine the choices made by social media platforms like Meta and Twitter when moderating material.
According to a gazette notification published on Friday, the “Grievance Appellate Committees” would be established within three months.
The acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion (about Rs. 3,62,300 crore) by Tesla CEO Elon Musk coincides with the completion of that deal, giving the world’s richest man control over one of the most important social media platforms in the world.
However, since consumers highlighted instances of digital platforms behaving arbitrarily, IT policy revisions have been in the works for months. With the most recent action, users will have a mechanism for appealing grievance rulings in the form of appellate panels, which will examine complaints made by people about the grievance officers’ judgments on social media platforms.
On Friday, the revised IT guidelines were announced.
Each appellate grievance committee will include a chairperson, two full-time members (two of whom must be independent), and one ex-officio member. They are all selected by the central government.
It stated that after thirty days of receiving information from the grievance officer, “Any individual aggrieved by a judgment of the grievance officer may prefer an appeal to the appellate grievance committee.”
The appellate grievance panel will handle such an appeal “expeditiously” and try to reach a final decision within thirty days of the appeal’s receipt date.
