The government recently released the details related to the Grievance Appellate Committees (GAC) that will look into complaints against online platforms, including social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter. The portal to file the complaints is expected to be activated on March 1.
Last year, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Electronics and Information Technology, had said the GACs were being formed as there were recurring complaints from those who use online platforms that they didn’t know who to reach to address a problem.
He said it was quite “bizarre” that the social media platforms dealing with millions of people were not making any effort to be accountable to their consumers.
“A lot of these platforms just appointed ‘naam ke vaste’ somebody to occupy the position of Grievances officer,” the Union Minister noted, adding that either the person became just a “letter box” or they appointed someone who was “not interested” in addressing the grievances or an issue was settled in an “unsatisfactory manner”.
Now citizens can reach out to the GACs if they are not satisfied with the response they get from the online companies.
The committees will function as a virtual platform through which the entire appeal process, including the filing of the appeal and the panel’s decision, will be carried out digitally.
It is believed that the panel will make an effort to respond to the users’ appeal within 30 days. Reviews of GACs and reporting, as well as disclosure of the orders, will be part of the process.
The appeal can be made on www.gac.gov.in. This portal is expected to be activated in the coming week, while currently, it is displays a text saying: “Website will be available soon”.
The GACs
Each of the three GACs will have a chairperson, two full-time members from various government entities and retired senior executives from the industry for a three-year term beginning on the date of appointment.
The first panel will be chaired by Rajesh Kumar, CEO of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Ministry of Home Affairs. Ashutosh Shukla, Retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, and Sunil Soni, Punjab National Bank’s (PNB) former chief general manager and chief information officer, have been appointed as whole-time members of the panel.
The second panel will be chaired by Vikram Sahay, joint secretary in-charge of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s Policy and Administration Division. Commodore Sunil Kumar Gupta, former Director (Personnel Services), Naval Head Quarters, Indian Navy, and Kavindra Sharma, former Vice-President (Consulting), L&T Infotech Ltd, will be the whole-time members of this panel.
Kavita Bhatia, a scientist in the IT Ministry, will be the chairperson of the third committee. She will be joined by two other whole-time members — Sanjay Goel, Retired Indian Railway Traffic Service, and Krishnagiri Ragothamarao Murali Mohan, former Managing Director and CEO of IDBI Intech Ltd.
Regarding the official establishment of the committees, Amit Relan, Founder and CEO of mFilterIt, told News18: “Currently, there is a lack of transparency among users in the process of how companies handle complaints and how decisions are made. Users also feel that social media companies take a long time to respond to their complaints or ignore them altogether. Especially in the case of wrong product delivery or replacements, the customers are not much confident with the system.”
“Social media companies involved in content creation services are also often considered to present a biased opinion regarding political and controversial topics. This causes a serious threat to the sovereignty of the nation. Due to the lack of a grievance redressal system for social media platforms, users are unaware of the scope to address incidents like cyberbullying and hate speech,” he added.
Relan believes that the government-regulated grievance redress system for social media companies will bring in the required transparency and confidence among users.
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