The government on Thursday unveiled new policies for social media and over the top (OTT) platforms.In a press conference, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the new guidelines will keep an eye on the web content/OTT content and empower social media users.

"Social media is welcome for doing business in India, but such content is coming on social media, which cannot be called civilized in any way. Such complaints came to us a lot. A forum should be there for the problem of social media users. Social media is being used to spread hatred. Terrorists are also using social media. Complaints of wrong use of social media have been coming for many years, there is also the menace of fake news.

As per the new guidelines, offensive posts to be removed in 24 hours and the platforms have to appoint a Chief Complaint Officer. The platforms will also have to provide information about the person who first posted the content.

The new guidelines will be implemented within three months.

"Social media platforms upon being asked either by a court order or a govt authority will be required to disclose the first originator of mischievous tweet or message as the case may be,'' Prasad said.

"This should be only in relation to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, public order, relations with foreign states, or rape, sexually explicit content etc,'' he added.

The rules are aimed at establishing a soft touch progressive institutional mechanism with a level playing field featuring a Code of Ethics and a three-tier grievance redressal framework for news publishers and OTT platforms on the digital media.

"There was demand from all sectors including these two platforms that there must be some arrangement by which a level playing field can be provided to all the media categories. Thus, under the Information Technology Act, 2000 certain rules are being formulated to provide this institutional mechanism for level playing field," a statement from the government said.

The government on Thursday unveiled new policies for social media and over the top (OTT) platforms.In a press conference, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the new guidelines will keep an eye on the web content/OTT content and empower social media users.

"Social media is welcome for doing business in India, but such content is coming on social media, which cannot be called civilized in any way. Such complaints came to us a lot. A forum should be there for the problem of social media users. Social media is being used to spread hatred. Terrorists are also using social media. Complaints of wrong use of social media have been coming for many years, there is also the menace of fake news.

As per the new guidelines, offensive posts to be removed in 24 hours and the platforms have to appoint a Chief Complaint Officer. The platforms will also have to provide information about the person who first posted the content.

The new guidelines will be implemented within three months.

"Social media platforms upon being asked either by a court order or a govt authority will be required to disclose the first originator of mischievous tweet or message as the case may be,'' Prasad said.

"This should be only in relation to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, public order, relations with foreign states, or rape, sexually explicit content etc,'' he added.

The rules are aimed at establishing a soft touch progressive institutional mechanism with a level playing field featuring a Code of Ethics and a three-tier grievance redressal framework for news publishers and OTT platforms on the digital media.

"There was demand from all sectors including these two platforms that there must be some arrangement by which a level playing field can be provided to all the media categories. Thus, under the Information Technology Act, 2000 certain rules are being formulated to provide this institutional mechanism for level playing field," a statement from the government said.