Facebook, Google submits compliance report

Social media giants has now started submitting their compliance reports in accordance with Rule 4(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 of the Government of India. As directed by the new IT Law, social media giant Facebook submitted its first compliance report on Friday. Earlier, Google and Koo had also submitted their reports. Under the new law, which came into effect on May 26, large social media,with over 5 million users, companies need to publish periodic compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken.

In its report, Facebook said it took action on over 30 million content pieces across 10 violation categories from May 15 to June 15 in India. The percentage of the accounts acted upon after Facebook's technology found and flagged them for violating rules is between 96.4 per cent and 99.9 per cent. The proactive rate for removal of content related to bullying and harassment was 36.7 per cent as this kind of content is contextual and highly personal by nature. The report submitted by Facebook is an interim one. The company has informed the Government of India that a full report will be published by July 15, containing details of user complaints received and action taken by the social media giant.

Instagram took action against almost two million pieces across nine categories during the same period. This includes content related to suicide and self-injury (699,000), violent and graphic content (668,000), adult nudity and sexual activity (490,000), and bullying and harassment (108,000). Google said that 96 per cent of complaints received by them were related to copyright in India. A total of 27,762 complaints were received by Google and YouTube between April 1 and April 30 this year from individual users over alleged violation of local laws or personal rights.As a result, the company removed 59-350 content during the period. A majority of them again were related to copyright infringement.

KOO's June 2021 report shows that of the 5,502 complaints reported by users, 22.7 per cent (1,253) were removed, while 'other action' was taken against 4,249. The India-made social media platform also took steps to proactively moderate 54,235 accounts, of which 2.2 per cent (1,996) were removed while 'other action' was taken against the remaining 52,239. If social media companies don't follow IT rules, they would lose the intermediary status that provides them immunity from liability over any third-party data hosted by them. Once a platform loses its intermediary status, it could be liable for criminal action in case of complaints.

Meanwhile, Twitter on Saturday informed the Delhi high court it is in "final stages" of appointing a new resident grievance officer, Appointing a resident grievance officer is one of several norms which Twitter and other social media platforms operating in India have to follow under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.