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The Uttar Pradesh government has come out with a new social media policy, entailing stringent punishment for those posting anti-national or derogatory content and financial rewards for influencers promoting government policies.
The ‘UP Digital Media Policy 2024’ was cleared by the UP cabinet on Tuesday evening.
Under the policy, the government would give advertisements to eligible visual and digital media firms and influencers active on popular social media platforms of X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The actual payment would be determined on the basis of subscribers and followers commanded by these firms and social media influencers.
The policy also has stringent provisions to book those posting derogatory/indecent, vulgar and anti-national content on social media.
According to a senior state government official, the policy will help the government in disseminating, through the vehicles of social and digital media, vital information about public and social welfare schemes, and the benefits accruing to the people.
Moreover, the policy is also aimed at creating jobs for the local youth and digital startups.
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The empanelled social media firms and agencies will be given ads to display/relay content, videos, tweets, posts and reels encapsulating the various UP government schemes and achievements on X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
The social media agencies would be segregated into four broad categories based on the count of subscribers and followers.
The maximum payment to account holders, operators and influencers of X, Facebook and Instagram has been fixed at Rs 5 lakh, Rs 4 lakh, Rs 3 lakh per month respectively.
Similarly, the category-wise ceiling for payment pertaining to videos, shorts and podcasts on YouTube has been fixed at Rs 8 lakh, Rs 7 lakh, Rs 6 lakh and Rs 4 lakh per month respectively.
Meanwhile, for derogatory posts, police currently books the accused under Section 66 (E) and 66 (F) of the IT Act.
Under the new policy, if found guilty, there is a provision for punishment ranging from three years to life imprisonment (for anti-national activities).
An accused could also stand trial for criminal defamation for posting indecent and obscene content on social media.
Earlier, the Centre had issued Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code three years back to curb such activities.
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