Will Facebook, Twitter, Instagram be blocked in India? New stricter social media rules come into effect from today

On February 25, the government had announced tighter regulations for social media firms like Facebook and Twitter, requiring them to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours and setting up a complaint redressal mechanism with an officer being based in the country.

The Government had on February 25, 2021 gave social media companies three-month time to comply.

The deadline is ending May 25, but none of the top firms have reportedly adhered to the new rules.

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The rules come into effect on May 26, 2021 and if social media companies do not comply, they may lose their status and protections as intermediaries and may become liable for criminal action as per existing laws of India, sources said.

The government had set 50 lakh registered users as the threshold for defining ”significant social media intermediary”, which will have to adhere to additional obligations and compliance under the new IT rules that seek to crack down on misuse of social media platforms.

Announcing the guidelines in February, it had said the new rules take effect immediately, while significant social media providers (based on number of users) will get three months before they need to start complying.

Among various measures, the rules had said social media companies can look at offering a voluntary user verification mechanism to those who wish to verify their accounts.

Such users will be provided an “appropriate mechanism to verify their accounts and provided with a demonstrable and visible mark of verification”, the rules had said.