MeitY plans to relax content monitoring clause for Twitter, Facebook

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) may relax content monitoring clause, which was also part of govt draft guidelines released in last December, for social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp.

The ministry is instead planning to develop AI mechanism to find out originators of antisocial or inflammatory content.

It is mulling to ask social media platforms to develop an advance mechanism to identify elements that are a threat to national security, according to a senior official quoted by ET report.

The technology, the government is looking for, reported to be similar to what WhatsApp has been using to curb child pornography.

In early this year, the messaging app removed close to 1,30,000 accounts in 10 days using AI tools to find out accounts indulged in illegal activities.

Last year, the Supreme Court insisted that the Central government, as well as State governments, must take step stop spread of irresponsible and explosive messages, videos and other material on various social media platforms.

Taking note of it, the Home Ministry had also proposed it and the clause was included in the draft guidelines.

Though, the move was opposed by global tech firms operating in India, citing curb on freedom of expression.

MeitY after taking note of their opposition, and understanding that social media firms are platforms, not publishers, had decided to fix accountability accordingly.

At the same time, these platforms need to cooperate with law enforcement bodies, added the official. The ministry is reported to be done with the consultation process and now working on drafting the final clause.

The final guideline in this regard will come out after the apex court judgement on the traceability issue and on linking of Aadhar to social media accounts.