MeitY notified the formation of three Grievance Appellate Committees, each of which will have one chairperson and two whole-time members
Under the amendment to the IT Rules, the Centre mandated the formation of the committees to address user complaints against online platforms, including social media intermediaries
The committee will be a virtual digital platform operating only online and digitally, with the whole appeal process being conducted digitally
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The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has notified three Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs), in line with the recent amendments in the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 to take up user complaints against online platforms.
Each of the three committees will have one chairperson and two whole-time members. The whole-time members will have a term of three years from the date of assumption of office.
The government has appointed Rajesh Kumar, CEO of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Ministry of Home Affairs; Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary in charge of the policy and administration division in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; and Kavita Bhatia, a scientist and Joint Secretary rank officer in MeitY, as the chairpersons of the three committees.
It must be noted that the Indian government mandated the formation of the committees to address user complaints against online platforms, including social media intermediaries, despite objections from several legal experts, industry bodies, lobby groups, and tech giants. The committee will be a virtual digital platform operating only online and digitally, where the whole appeal process – from the filing of the appeal to the decision thereof – will be conducted digitally.
On the heels of the announcement, a recent Business Standard report said that the government might launch the grievance portal within a week.
However, MeitY in a statement said that the online platform would be operational from March 1, 2023, given the transition period required for the intermediaries and technical requirements.
As per the Centre, the GACs would create avenues for grievance redressal, apart from courts, and ensure that the constitutional rights of Indian citizens are not contravened by any big tech platform by ensuring new accountability standards for significant social media intermediaries.
“The Grievance Appellate Committee is a critical piece of overall policy and legal framework to ensure that the internet in India is open, safe & trusted and accountable. The need for GAC was created due to large numbers of grievances being left unaddressed or unsatisfactorily addressed by internet intermediaries. GAC is expected to create a culture of responsiveness amongst all internet platforms and intermediaries towards their consumers,” MeitY said in the statement.
The committee will address the users’ appeal against the decision of the grievance officers of the social media intermediaries and other online intermediaries within 30 days, it added.
The development comes at a time when the Indian government has cracked down on a number of big tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Twitter. Last week, tech giant Google announced changes to its Android and Play Store policies in order to comply with the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI’s) orders against it after the US-based company failed to get any relief from the Supreme Court.
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