MeitY may stick with a govt-backed GAC for social media content issues

The IT rules, 2021, require significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs) appoint a resident grievance officer to decide on content-related complaints

Against the background of its brushes with big social media outfits, the government may stick with its plan to create a grievance appellate committee (GAC) for the sector.

Any self-regulatory body of intermediaries will have to work on the same mechanism as that of the GAC, a government official said.

The IT rules, 2021, require significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs) — platforms with more than 5 million users — appoint a resident grievance officer to decide on content-related complaints.

In June this year, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had proposed a GAC that could override the