Social media hosting third party content were treated as intermediaries under section 79 of the IT Act providing them exemptions and certain immunity from liabilities for any third-party content and data hosted by them.
It is only when these firms fail to remove or block any content as directed by the government that they are liable to face penal action, which may lead to their executives being jailed too.
The safe harbour provisions are being questioned all over the world. India too is thinking of a law, say Digital India Act, which covers cyber security, social media, digital services, personal data protection etc.
The point is what is applicable to analogue world should be applicable to the digital world too. There should be accountability for the social media too.
Some clauses have been tightened under section 69A of the IT Act which has mandated firms to appoint grievance redressal officers and nodal officers for coordination with the government. It was made necessary for messengers such as WhatsApp to provide the first originator of what is deemed to be mischievous message. Some of these provisions have been challenged in courts.
It is true that the safe harbour concept belongs to the 1980s and time has come to dilute this concept.
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