NEW DELHI, 28 May 2021, (TON): Indian has introduced new social media rules that are designed to prevent abuse and misuse of platforms but offer users a robust forum for grievance redressal.

Indian Information & Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad clarified on Thursday said that WhatsApp users have nothing to fear about new social media rules, that are designed to offer users a robust forum for grievance redressal. He said, "Ordinary users of WhatsApp have nothing to fear about the new Rules. Its entire objective is to find out who started the message that led to commissioning of specific crimes mentioned in the Rules."

The new IT rules require the social media companies to set up an India-based grievance redressal officer, compliance officer and nodal officer "so that millions of users of social media who have a grievance get a forum for its redressal", he said.

The government announced new rules on 25 February 2021 that invited a lot of criticism. Indian government defended its new digital rules, saying the requirement of messaging platforms like WhatsApp to disclose origin of flagged messages does not violate privacy, and went on to seek a compliance report from large social media firms.

Non-compliance with rules would result in these platforms losing their intermediary status that provides them immunity from liabilities over any third-party data hosted by them. In other words, they could be liable for criminal action in case of complaints.