India May Require Twitter, Facebook and Others to Remove Unlawful Content Within 36 Hours

India is reportedly gearing up to announce new policies to require Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies to remove ‘unlawful’ content within 36 hours of orders issued by a court or the government.

According to a report by The Times of India, the proposed amendments bring down the time limit to remove content from 72 hours to 36 hours. This is aimed at being more responsive when it comes to requests made by users.

The amendments are being made to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011. A summary of the existing guidelines can be read on PRS Legislative Research.

“36 hours is adequate time and in line with global standards to initiate a takedown on the part of intermediaries,” Simranjeet Singh, Partner, Athena Legal, told Business Insider.

“It has consistently been argued by the intermediaries that they can immediately take down content post receiving actual knowledge of any illegal acts being perpetrated on their platforms,” he further added.

“Koo will respect the laws of the land. We understand the importance of freedom of speech and at the same time we also understand the need to operate within the legal boundaries of our country of operation. Policies around social media are welcome because they make some of the nebulous things around what’s acceptable and what’s not, legally known and enforced. This reduces the vagueness around clear actions that need to be taken by platforms,” said Mayank Bidawatka, Co founder, Koo, the new upcoming Indian alternative to Twitter.

Source: ToI