New Information Technology Rules, 2021 in India

 

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, were passed on February 25, 2021, by the Central Government, imposing certain requirements on internet intermediaries, particularly social media platforms.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had set a May 25 deadline for the organizations to accept the rules. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are some internet intermediaries.

All prominent social media networks with more than 50 lakh (5 million) members are classified as huge social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Koo.

According to data from January of this year, Facebook has 320 million users in India, Twitter has more than 17.5 million users, Whatapp has more than 390 million users, and Koo, an Indian social networking site, has more than 60 lakh users.

According to reports, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have failed to comply with the 2021 Rules. This has caused concern among users of such websites that they may be forced to shut down or be blacklisted in India as a result of their non-compliance. On May 24 hashtags were trending that these platforms will be banned in India from May 26.

But Noncompliance did not result in a "shutdown" of social media platforms, but rather in the loss of status as an "intermediary.

" The intermediate status provides a "safe harbour" for social media and messaging platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, allowing them to avoid liability for information that their users publish or send on the network as long as they meet certain criteria.

What Comes Under New It Rules, 2021?

New IT rules require social media platform to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer, a Nodal Contact Person for 24x7 coordination with law enforcement agencies, and a Resident Grievance Officer who shall perform the functions mentioned under Grievance Redressal Mechanism.

Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter must designate a number of senior individuals to be in charge of responding to government take down orders and other directives, the take down process must be completed within 36 hours.

Locating the Source of Information

Intermediary such as WhatsApp or Signal need to enable the identification of the “first originator” of a message. Traceability proponents argue that it is the only method to locate potentially deadly "fake news" and track down the source of illegal information such as child pornography.

Section 79 notably exempts digital media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp from liability for posts made on their networks, as well as third-party data and information. If noncompliance becomes a problem, that legal immunity will be revoked.

When an intermediary violates these regulations, the Act's sub-section (1) under section 79 does not apply, and the intermediary is subject to penalties under any legislation in effect at the time, including the Act and the Indian Penal Code.

Social Media Platforms Concern Over New It Rules

Twitter was one of the social media networks that didn't make it through the compliance process. It said new social media laws were seen as a "possible danger to freedom of expression.

"Twitter also added it’s concerned by the recent incidents regarding its employees in the country. The Indian government has slammed Twitter's response, calling it unjustified, dishonest, and an attempt to discredit the country.

Various difficulties with the guidelines have been raised, including restrictions on free expression, requirements for automatic material identification and removal. Twitter is not the only platform to the show concern, Facebook, Whatsapp, decided to sue the Indian Government.

Whatsapp is taking the government to the court over new IT Rules 2021. Under the new guidelines messaging platforms would need to provide provisions for the identification of the first originator of the information. So Whatsapp is pleading before the court that following the guidelines will lead to completely break in end to end encryption and this would undermine the people’s right to privacy.

Reasonable and proportional rules are necessary in an increasingly digital society, but destroying everyone's privacy, abusing human rights, and placing innocent people in danger is not the answer. WhatsApp's End to End encryption is enabled by default for all messages.

Furthermore, WhatsApp would have to re-engineer the programme specifically for India, which it will not do. If WhatsApp were required to follow the laws, it would have to develop a version of the programme that supports traceability but does not use End 2 End encryption.

Affects of New Rules on People?

With the implementation of new IT Rules that impose stricter requirements on intermediaries for proactive content monitoring, users will be held liable for what they post, as the majority of published content does not come directly from the creators. As a result of this Citizens' freedom of speech and privacy will be restricted in an unconstitutional manner.

The introduction of automated tools to filter out objectionable contents will lead discrimination in accuracies and lack of accountability and transparency. Bringing OTT streaming platforms under government scrutiny will have a direct influence on the quality of the content we consume.

 

Written by – Kriti Verma

Edited by – Adrija Saha