Recently, rumors have shocked the Internet with the news that giant social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter will be banned in India from 26th May 2021.
Reason for Ban:
The news report suggested that social media giants such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter may face a ban in India if they fail to comply with the new intermediary guidelines for social media platforms.
On 25th February 2021, The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had given these social media companies a three-month time to comply with comprehensive guidelines issued.
The deadline to accept the guidelines set by the government was supposed to end on 26th May. But so far none of the platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter has complied with the new policy.
This result in a storm on the internet that these platforms will stop working from Wednesday, 26th May 2021.
However, nothing has happened yet.
Indian social media platform, Koo (similar to Twitter) is the only platform that has so far accepted the Centre’s intermediary guidelines.
As per data quoted by the government, India has 53 crore WhatsApp users, 44.8 crore YouTube users, 41 crore Facebook subscribers, 21 crore Instagram users, while 1.75 crore account holders on Twitter.
Facebook and Instagram said that they are working to implement operational processes and aims to comply with the provisions of the new IT rules.
Twitter has not yet commented on its official status in complying with the rules.
Is YouTube / Google banned in India 2021?
No, YouTube & Google are no going to be banned in India. Google and YouTube on Tuesday said that they will comply with the country’s new digital rules & policy.
Is Snapchat banned in India 2021?
There is no any news regarding the ban of Snapchat till now.
New IT rules 2021 for social media
All the social media platforms operating in India will have to implement the new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021.
Know more about the rules here: New IT Rules for social media