Context: The legal action initiated by the French authorities against Pavel Durov impinges on the protection that is accorded to social media platforms across jurisdictions under a provision known as “safe harbour”.
What are ‘Safe Harbour’ Rules?
- Since social media platforms are generally understood to be crucial tools of free speech, safe harbour is viewed as a basic tenet of enabling freedom of expression on these platforms.
- The basic premise of safe harbour protection is: since social media platforms cannot control at the first instance what users post, they should not be held legally liable for any objectionable content that they host, provided they are willing to take down such content when flagged by the government or courts.
Legal Protection in India
- Section 79 of Information Technology Act, 2000 it classifies social media platforms as intermediaries and broadly shields them from legal action over the content that users post.
- However, this protection extends to companies operating in India with some caveats.
- Under The Information Technology Rules, 2021, social media companies with more than 5 million Indian users have to appoint a chief compliance officer who can be held criminally liable if the platform does not adhere to a takedown request, or violates other norms.
- Hence, certain officials from the social media company in question can be legally prosecuted if the platform violates laid-down rules.
Read also: Fundamental Rights and its features