Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Saturday said that the main objective behind amending the Information Technology (IT) rules was to make sure that the internet was open, safe and accountable for all digital users. 

“The main objective of what we are doing on the internet is to make sure the internet is open, it is safe, accountable and trusted for our 120 crore digital citizens,” Mr Chandrasekhar told the ANI. 

He added that the intermediate platforms should not be misused by those who were peddling falsehood. 

For the record, the government on Friday notified amended IT rules, under which appellate panels will be set up for addressing grievances of users against social media platforms. 

According to the new rules, government-appointed appellate committees will be set up in three months to resolve social media users’ grievances. 

The notification said that each grievance appellate committee would consist of a chairperson and two whole-time members appointed by the Centre, of which one would be a member ex-officio and two would be independent members. 

According to the new rules, any person aggrieved by a decision of the grievance officer may prefer an appeal to the grievance appellate committee within a period of 30 days from the date of receipt of communication from the grievance officer. 

“The committee shall deal with such appeal expeditiously and shall make an endeavour to resolve the appeal finally within 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of the appeal,” the notification said. 

“The Grievance Appellate Committee shall adopt an online dispute resolution mechanism, wherein the entire appeal process, from filing of appeal to the decision thereof, shall be conducted through digital mode,” it added. 

The notification has come at a time when Tesla CEO Elon Musk has completed his takeover of micro-blogging site Twitter.