Amid the hue and cry with the social media platforms, the
Centre has now written to the OTT and digital media platforms to comply with
the new rules.
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has given 15 days to these platforms to furnish their details and compliance status.
The Centre has also said that a total of around 60 publishers and their associations have informed the Ministry that they have already initiated the process of formation of self-regulatory bodies under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Codes) Rules, 2021.
"There is no requirement for prior registration of digital media publishers with the ministry," it said, adding that one of the new rules provide for furnishing certain information by the publishers of news and current affairs content, and publishers of online curated content, to the ministry.
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Apart from the details on the websites, mobile apps and social media accounts, the ministry has also sought information on the grievance redressal mechanism.
"The publishers may furnish the information to the ministry in the applicable format within 15 days of the issuance of this notice," it said.
It may be noted here the Centre formulated the new intermediary guidelines in February this year and had given three months time to comply with the latest norms. With these guidelines, a new framework has been created for governing intermediary liability and digital media regulation.
As per the norms, digital news publishers will now have to notify the government of their operations, set up self-regulatory bodies and apply a complaint redressal mechanism, besides following the codes which were only applicable to print and television news thus far.
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