Facebook has new legal provisions
Global social media and technology giants are gearing up to fight new rules proposed by the Indian government that would require them to actively regulate content in one of the world’s biggest Internet markets, sources close to the matter told Reuters. The rules, proposed by the information technology ministry on Christmas Eve, would compel platforms such as Facebook, its messaging service WhatsApp and Twitter to remove unlawful content, such as anything that affected the “sovereignty and integrity of India”. This had to be done within 24 hours, the rules propose.
But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born, a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth and will unfold in the master-builder of human happiness. For no one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because they do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are the sorrows of those who have.
According to industry executives and civil rights activists, the rules smack of censorship and could be used by the government to increase surveillance and crack down on dissent. Social media firms have long battled efforts by governments around the world to hold them responsible for what users post on their platforms.
US and India lobby groups, representing Facebook and other companies, have sought legal opinions from law firms on the impact of the proposal, and have started working on drafting objections to be filed with the IT ministry, four sources in the sector said. “The companies can’t take this lying down. We are all concerned, it’s fundamental to how these platforms are governed,” said an executive at a global social media company.
