Developed in India, Koo was the first social media intermediary to say that it would comply with the new IT rules. Koo, a homegrown microblogging platform, published its second compliance report for the month of July 2021, as mandated by Rule 4(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, notified by the Indian government in February this year. The report revealed that it had removed 498 Koos reported by its community; in June, the company had taken down as many as 1,253 Koos. The company did not elaborate on the nature of these complaints. Koos are posts that users upload on the platform along the lines of tweets for Twitter. "Rule 4(d) of the IT Rules, 2021, specify that Significant Social Media Intermediaries (who have more than 5 million users) must publish periodic compliance report every month mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken thereon, and the number of specific communication links or parts of information that the intermediary has removed or disabled access to in pursuance of any proactive monitoring conducted by using automated tools or any other relevant information as may be specified." — IT Rules 2021 Why it matters? On February 25 this year, the central government notified the IT Rules, 2021, which made sweeping changes to social media in the country. The rules led to a tightening of the regulations under which social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and others operated in India. The new rules stated that significant social media…
