India addressed letters to the social media sites X, formerly known as Twitter, Youtube, and Telegram on Friday, requesting that they make sure that there is no content containing child sexual abuse on those sites.
If the businesses don’t comply, they risk losing their immunity from liability, the government warned in a statement.
The federal Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s notifications stressed how crucial it is to promptly and completely remove any content on these platforms that contains child sexual abuse.
Rajeev Chandrashekhar, India’s junior minister for information technology, stated: “If they do not act swiftly, their safe harbour under section 79 of the IT Act would be withdrawn and consequences under Indian law will follow.”
Chandrasekhar has been a vocal advocate for removing such harmful content from the Indian internet and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is determined “to build a safe and trusted internet under the IT rules,” the government said.
The notices also asked companies to take proactive measures, such as content moderation algorithms and reporting mechanisms, to prevent the dissemination of child sexual abuse material in the future, the statement said.
