Tech titan Meta has raised alarm over the Indian government's freshly notified amendments to IT rules, wherein internet platforms are required to take down unlawful content within three hours of receiving a government order.
Rob Sherman, vice president policy and deputy chief privacy officer, Meta, underlined that the three-hour window is going to be really challenging operationally. He added that if the Indian government had consulted Meta, they would have been made aware of these hurdles, as per reports.
"Operationally three hours (takedown window) is going to be really challenging... Traditionally, the Indian government has been quite consultative when it comes to these things. This is an example where I think we're concerned that had they come to us and talked to us about it, we would have talked about some of the operational challenges," Sherman was quoted as saying at a roundtable in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has recently tightened the deadline for intermediaries to comply with takedown directions under amendments to Section 79 of the IT Act. Earlier, the window for taking down unlawful content used to be 36 hours, but MeitY has sharply reduced it to three hours, citing how quickly deep fakes and misleading content go viral.
Sherman, who understood concerns surrounding virality, said that these decisions also require careful assessment.
"The motivation around virality is understandable — harmful content can spread very quickly. But these decisions also require careful assessment," the Meta deputy chief privacy officer stated.
Companies are reportedly curating presentations to seek clarity regarding the flexibility of this rule, whether there will be exceptions to it in case of technical complexity or cross-border content, and how it will be implemented practically.
However, Sherman pointed out that the concern is not whether companies will comply, but rather whether removal can happen on such short notice, within the timeframe.
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