Government launches Grievance Appellate Committee for social media firms

ET had reported on Tuesday that the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has developed a technology platform to process these user complaints against social media companies.

The platform will automatically segregate the complaints – made to the government-appointed GACs – and escalate those that require intervention to its three subcommittees.

Significant SSMIs such as Google and Facebook will have to be a part of the platform to address complaints and file their responses to the grievances via the portal.

Earlier this year, the Centre announced the establishment of three GACs based on the recently amended Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

The idea was to give users grievance redressal avenues apart from courts, where it is a time-consuming process. The government said this would ensure the “Constitutional rights of Indian citizens are not contravened by any Big-tech platform by ensuring new accountability standards for SSMIs”.

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In January, the government said GACs were being created due to the large number of grievances being left unaddressed or unsatisfactorily addressed by internet intermediaries. “The GAC will be a virtual digital platform that will operate online – wherein the entire appeal process, from filing of appeal to the decision thereof, shall be conducted digitally,” the IT ministry had said.

Users will have the option to appeal against the decision of the grievance officer of the social media intermediaries and other online intermediaries before this new appellate body.

The government said the GAC would address the user’s appeal within 30 days. In January, the government had notified that the first panel will be led by the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Indian Cyber Coordination Centre (ICCC) under the Union home ministry.

It will have Indian Police Service officer Ashutosh Shukla and Sunil Soni, the former chief general manager and chief information officer of Punjab National Bank, as whole-time members.

The joint secretary in charge of the policy and administration division of the information and broadcast ministry will lead the second panel that will have retired Commodore Sunil Kumar Gupta and Kavindra Sharma, the former vice president of L&T Infotech, as whole-time members.

Kavita Bhatia, a scientist in the IT ministry, will helm the third panel with Sanjay Goel, a retired Indian Railway Traffic Service officer and Krishnagiri Ragothamarao Murali Mohan, the former managing director of IDBI Intech, as whole-time members.

On Tuesday, the GAC was launched in the presence of representatives of companies like Meta, Snap, Google, ShareChat and others.