Digital companies like Google and WhatsApp have also updated their websites to reflect the appointment of grievance officers as per the new social media rules.

Social media giant Facebook has named Spoorthi Priya as its grievance officer for India on its website.

Earlier, sources had said Facebook was updating the details of the new grievance officers appointed, to replace the existing information on its platform.

E-mails sent to Facebook did not elicit a response.

Digital companies like Google and WhatsApp have also updated their websites to reflect the appointment of grievance officers as per the new social media rules.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp had recently named Paresh B. Lal as its grievance officer for India on its website.

Last week, Facebook had announced major changes in its content moderation policies that could escalate its confrontation with governments.

On June 4, Facebook said that when it assesses content for newsworthiness, it will not treat content posted by politicians any differently from content posted by anyone else.

Instead, it will simply apply its “newsworthiness balancing test” in the same way to all content, measuring whether the public interest value of the content outweighs the potential risk of harm by leaving it up, Facebook had said.

There are concerns globally about increasing influence of social media platforms and the potential impact on democratic processes. Social media companies have also drawn ire over a number of issues, including misinformation, instances of data breach and handling of hate speech.

The Indian government has enforced new social media rules that are designed to prevent abuse and misuse of digital platforms, and offer users a robust forum for grievance redressal.

As per the rules, all intermediaries have to prominently publish on their website, app or both, the name of the grievance officer and his/her contact details as well as the mechanism by which a user or a victim may make a complaint.

The grievance officer will have to acknowledge the complaint within 24 hours and dispose of such complaint within a period of 15 days from the date of its receipt, and receive and acknowledge any order, notice or direction issued by the authorities.

Under the new rules, social media companies will have to take down flagged content within 36 hours, and remove within 24 hours content that is flagged for nudity, pornography etc.

Non-compliance with the rules would result in these platforms losing their intermediary status that provides them immunity from liabilities over any third-party data hosted by them. In other words, they could be liable for criminal action in case of complaints.

Spoorthi Priya

Email Id :- [email protected]

Additionally, you can also contact

Facebook in India

via post at: 216 Okhla Industrial Estate,

Phase III New Delhi – 110020