BENGALURU: Given the scale and diversity of its fast-growing internet<\/a> userbase, India poses special concerns with regard to content moderation<\/a>, said Sudhir Krishnaswamy<\/a>, the vice-chancellor of National Law School of India University and the only Indian member of social media giant Facebook<\/a>’s new Oversight Board<\/a>.

On Wednesday, Facebook unveiled the first 20 members of its Oversight Board, which some have dubbed as its “Supreme Court”.

The Board will be able to overturn decisions by the company on whether individual pieces of content should be allowed on Facebook and Instagram<\/a>.

“The size of internet users in India is second only to China<\/a> and is growing. The userbase is multilingual and more new users are coming in. The scale, size, diversity pose special concerns from what we have seen in other jurisdictions,” Krishnaswamy told ET.

India had 504 million active internet users – who logged onto the Web at least once in the last one month – at the end of November 2019, according to a recent report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

“State and private regulation, we know, need more work. No one is happy with private regulations and state regulations are sometimes either too weak or too strong. There is a clear need for an independent response. Here is an Oversight Board which is a serious response and can be important on how self-regulation can work,” he said.

India is soon expected to finalise changes to the Intermediary Liability rules of the Information Technology Act. The new rules will change the way social media companies monitor and take down content on the request of law enforcement agencies. The government has not been too happy with the content moderation decisions of social media firms and believes that more state control is necessary.

“India is revising its internet laws. This innovation has the potential to shape these laws. If the Board succeeds it can be a model for other Indian players. Intermediary Liability is notice and takedown law. It is light touch. So, this model is a step up from that,” Krishnaswamy said.

The board, which will grow to about 40 members and for which Facebook has pledged $130 million in funding for at least six years, will make public, binding decisions on controversial cases where users have exhausted Facebook’s usual appeals process.

“Indian lens and global lens (on issues) tend to merge. Most contentious will likely include safety, pornography, nudity and hate speech. India isn’t an outlier here. The local context will decide what kind of cases come up here,” he said.