Will India ban WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram from today?

Major social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram may run the risk of facing major government action if they do not comply with India's new IT rules.

The deadline to follow the new rules being imposed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is today (Wednesday).

It is being said that these major tech companies will be banned if they do not comply. That is, however, unlikely.

Here are some of the major rules the Indian government wants implemented:

• Big tech companies must have a chief compliance officer in India who can respond to government demands and needs whenever required.
• The tech companies have been asked to hire a nodal officer that will coordinate with law enforcement agencies 24/7 and whenever the government requires such coordination.
• The social media companies have been asked to hire a grievance redressal officer, whom the social media users will be able to approach with their grievances if they have any.
• And finally, companies like WhatsApp have been asked to ensure that they can trace a message to the original sender. This means breaking or circumventing end-to-end encryption on messages.

So far, major tech companies have not agreed to these rules, India Today reported.

On Tuesday, Facebook said it aims to comply with the new rules and is working to implement operational processes, the Hindustan Times reported

The Indian government says that if Twitter, Facebook, Google, WhatsApp or any other social media company do not follow the new rules they will lose the protection that “intermediaries” get in the IT Act. Once they lose this protection, they can then be dragged into a court and prosecuted using the applicable laws.