India has issued notices to major social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), YouTube (owned by Google), and Telegram, instructing them to remove any child sexual abuse material from their platforms, according to a government statement released on Friday. The government has also warned that these companies could lose their legal liability protection if they fail to comply with the directive.
These notices, dispatched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), underscore the crucial need for the swift and permanent removal of any child sexual abuse material found on these platforms. Failure to act promptly could result in the withdrawal of their safe harbor protection under section 79 of the IT Act, leading to legal consequences as per Indian law, cautioned Rajeev Chandrashekhar, the junior minister for information technology.
Chandrashekhar has been a vocal advocate for eradicating such harmful content from the Indian internet landscape, aligning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government's commitment to establishing a secure and trusted online environment under the IT rules.
In response, Telegram stated that its terms of service explicitly forbid child abuse materials, asserting that the platform's moderators actively monitor public areas and encourage user reports to promptly remove content that violates their terms.
As of the time of reporting, representatives from X and Google, the parent company of YouTube, have not provided immediate comments on the matter.
Furthermore, the government's notices have called on these companies to implement various measures, including content moderation algorithms and reporting mechanisms, to proactively prevent the dissemination of child sexual abuse material in the future.
This development comes in the wake of India's recent directives to online streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney, as reported by Reuters in July, which emphasized the need for independent reviews of content to assess levels of obscenity and violence before online distribution.
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