New guidelines for online news and social media

The govt of India on Thursday announced guidelines and digital media ethics code for Over The Top (OTT), online streaming and social media platforms. Part- II of these Rules shall be administered by Ministry of Electronics and IT, while Part-III relating to Code of Ethics and procedure and safeguards in relation to digital media shall be administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting,Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar released the guidelines of new rules to regulate digital content on social media to curb the misuse of the platforms. Briefing media in New Delhi, Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, under the guidelines the social media platforms have to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer of complaints, Nodal Contact person and a Resident Grievance officer.  He said, now the social media platforms will be required to disclose the first originator of the mischievous contents. He said, various concerns over rampant abuse of social media have come to the government. "Social media is welcome to do business India," Prasad said as he began laying out the guidelines. The government welcomes criticism of the government and the right to dissent, but it is very important that the users must be given a forum to raise their grievance against the abuse and misuse of social media, Prasad said.

For OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hotsar, the union minister announced that they will have to have a self-regulating body which "will be headed by a retired Supreme Court or high court judge or very eminent person in this category."An oversight mechanism will also be set up at the government level to deal with case that required immediate action.Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar announced three-tier mechanism for regulation of OTT and Digital media platforms. The new guidelines also mandates self-classification of content on all OTT platforms, Javadekar also said. The categories will be 13+, 16+ and A (Adult) categories. "There has to be a mechanism of parental lock and ensuring compliance that children don't see that," he also said during the briefing. Digital news media will follow rules under the Press Council of India. New websites will have to be registered on the Information and Broadcasting Ministry site.