India established a committee with veto power over social media content moderation

India will establish one or more grievance committees to oversee social media firms’ content moderation decisions, it announced today, moving forward with a proposal that has alarmed Meta, Google, and Twitter in the key overseas market.

The Indian government stated in an amendment to the country’s new IT law, which went into effect last year, that any individual who is dissatisfied with the social media’s appointed grievance officer may appeal to the Grievance Appellate Committee, which will consist of a chairperson and two full-time members appointed by the government. (In accordance with IT regulations, social media companies appointed grievance and other officers in India last year to hear feedback and complaints from their users.) According to a notice, the change will take effect on Friday.