What is the dispute between social media companies and the government? 10 points

Facebook’s proprietary messaging app WhatsApp (WhatsApp) against the new IT rules of the Government of India has reached the court. At the same time, the government has sent a notice to all the companies asking why the rule has not been followed till now?

What is the dispute between the government and social media companies

The dispute between the government and social media companies regarding new IT rules has not stopped. Meanwhile, there is also a lot of discussion on social media that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter may be shut down if the new IT rules are not adhered to. So let us tell you what is this dispute?

Understand the complete contrast in 10 points

1. The dispute between the government and social media companies has started due to the new IT rules, which have been implemented by the Government of India from 26 May. According to the new rules, it is necessary to track the source of messages sent and shared through social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook. That is, if any wrong or fake post is going viral, then the government can ask the company about its originator and social media companies will have to tell who had shared that post first.
2. According to the new rules, social media companies will have to take action against any complaint received for a post. For this, companies have to appoint three officers (Chief Compliance Officer, Nodal Contact Person and Resident Graduate Officer). These officers should be residents of India and their contact number is mandatory on social media website besides the app so that people can complain. Along with this, a 15-day deadline has also been fixed for the officials to update the complaint. Companies have been asked to keep staff monitoring the entire system.
3. The government has defended the new IT rules and said that there is no breach of privacy of anyone in it. The government says that under the new IT rules, there is a need to ask for information about their source only to prevent or investigate messages of ‘very serious crimes’ related to the country’s sovereignty or public order and security.
4. The new IT rules were announced on 25 February and social media companies like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were given three months to implement it. As a result of not following the rules, action can be taken on these social media companies.
5. WhatsApp has filed a case in the Delhi High Court against the Government of India regarding the new IT rules (IT Rules) and has sought to stop the rules. WhatsApp says that the privacy of users will be affected by the new rules. This will break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally weaken people’s right to privacy.
6. Now the question is, what harm will be done to WhatsApp by following the new rules. Actually, under the new rules, WhatsApp will have to trace all the messages of the users and by doing so people will lose their trust with Whatsapp. Whatsapp says that tracing chat is in a way similar to the information being asked about the fingerprint of our users.
7. What harm will be done to the common people by the new IT rules? Let us tell you that according to the new rules, WhatsApp will have to trace all the messages and all the private messages of the users will be accounted for by the company. With this, social media companies will collect even more data from users.
8. If companies do not accept the new rules, they will only act under the existing IT Act (IT Act). Recently, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that this is not a law and these are just guidelines. If the social media companies do not follow the new guidelines, then action will be taken against them only under the existing IT law.
9. WhatsApp has reached the court against the new IT rules, but Google and Facebook say that they are trying to follow the new rules. Facebook said that we are working towards improving to follow the new rules.