Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a notice to social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and Telegram directing them to remove all Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) from their platforms in India.
New Delhi: Taking note of the growing prevalence of child abuse videos on social media platforms, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued a notice on Friday to all social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and Telegram, directing them to promptly remove Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) from their platforms in India.
Child Sexual Abuse Material: What The Notice Says?
The notice additionally urges the implementation of proactive measures for the removal of CSAM and underscores the significance of swiftly and permanently eliminating such content. Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has been an outspoken proponent of removing harmful content from the Indian internet, aligning this approach with the ministry’s policy vision.
MeitY added that “delay in complying with the notices will result in the withdrawal of their safe harbour protection under Section 79 of the IT Act”.
“There will be ZERO tolerance for criminal & harmful content on Indian Internet. ITRules under the ITAct clearly lays down the expectation from Intermediaries: They cannot host criminal & harmful content like CSAM,” Chandrasekhar wrote on Twitter.
However, it is not clear that what prompted the government to issue notice to the three platforms.
Child Sexual Abuse Material: IT Rules Rules And Violations
The notices also emphasize that failure to comply with these requirements will be considered a violation of Rule 3(1)(b) and Rule 4(4) of the IT Rules, 2021, according to the ministry.
The Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, provides the legal framework for addressing pornographic content, including CSAM.
Sections 66E, 67, 67A, and 67B of the IT Act impose severe penalties and fines for the online transmission of obscene or pornographic content.
However, it’s important to note that safe harbour protection does not automatically disappear. The determination of whether safe harbor has been lost is made by the courts, not the executive, such as the IT Ministry. To assess whether safe harbour has been lost or not, someone must first file a case in court.
Nonetheless, a New York Times report from February highlighted that following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter (now X), instances of CSAM on the platform increased. This surge was attributed to the dismissal of experienced teams responsible for addressing the issue. In July, Musk controversially reinstated a suspended far-right Twitter account named “Dom Lucre” that had previously posted CSAM.
Child Sexual Abuse Material: Social Media Platforms’ Reactions To Notice
“We have a zero-tolerance policy on child sexual abuse material. No form of content that endangers minors is acceptable to us. We have heavily invested in the technology and teams to fight child sexual abuse and exploitation online and take swift to remove it as quickly as possible. In Q2 2023, we removed over 94,000 channels and over 2.5 million videos for violations of our child safety policies. We will continue to work with experts inside and outside of YouTube to provide minors and families with the best protections possible,” Hindustan Times quoted a YouTube spokesperson responding to the ministry notice.
Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn said, “8,198 groups and channels were banned in the first five days of October. This is noteworthy because, despite the requirement under the IT Rules 2021, Telegram does not publish its monthly transparency report. Therefore, this is one of the very few ways in which this platform exhibits a degree of transparency.”