New Delhi: As the Union government on Thursday notified the new rules for social media intermediaries, the social media platforms will have to remove offending content in 36 hours after a government’s legal notice.

An action would be taken in case of an unlawful information, which is prohibited under any law for the time being in force in relation to the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, and public order, among others.

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A notification in this case read, “Provided further that if any such information is hosted, stored or published, the intermediary shall remove or disable access to that information, as early as possible, but in no case later than 36 hours from the receipt of the court order or on being notified by the appropriate government or its agency, as the case may be.”

In addition to this, significant social media platforms as classified under the new rules providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall allow identification of the originator of such information.

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Also as per the new rules, social media platforms will be classified under two categories - social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries - with the intermediaries being subject to greater responsibilities.

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 mandate that the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, must establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving/resolving complaints from the users or victims.

(With inputs from IANS)