News Desk: The Centre, acting on new rules, has mandated that popular social media companies such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube will have to remove or block accounts with fake profile pictures of the general public, within 24 hours of being notified by the user or anyone else on their behalf.

These rules, applied on Thursday, are expected to end the threat of impersonation-related cyber crimes in the country. Social media giants are required to act immediately after receiving a complaint. “For example, if a film actor, or a cricketer, or a politician, or any other user, objects to another person using his or her image/picture to gain followers or to make their messaging more visible, or to carry out any illegal act, then they are within their right to ask the companies to take down the account. Provisions to this effect have been included in the new IT Rules for social media companies, and they have to take remedial action within a day after being notified by a user,” the Times of India mentioned in a report citing official sources.

Social media impersonators are a major threat for the citizens, who imitate legitimate accounts for various reasons, be it committing crime or financial fraud. Some fake accounts of popular personalities are also run by fans. Apart from using an image of a popular personality as their profile picture, some fake account holders may also add their own image to a celebrity’s picture by morphing the original content in order to claim proximity, and get favours.

The IT Ministry’s rules emerge as a new decree to curb the grievances of such people facing impersonation issues. It also makes it contingent on the social media giants to remove any content around nudity, obscenity, and sexual act or conduct within 24 hours after receiving a complaint by a user.