Central Government to reconsider ‘safe harbour’ clause in IT Law

Subject: Economy

Section: Msc

Concept:

The Central government formally outlined the Digital India Act, 2023. The Act will replace the decades-old Information Technology Act, 2000.
Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, announced that the government is reconsidering a key aspect of cyberspace — ‘safe harbour’.
- Safe harbour is the principle that so-called ‘intermediaries’ on the internet are not responsible for what third parties post on their website.
- This is the principle that allows social media platforms to avoid liability for posts made by users.
- The safe harbour clause was also reined in the recently notified Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 which mandates social media intermediates to remove posts when ordered to do so by the government.
The Minister said that intermediaries for which safe harbour was applied as a concept have now morphed into multiple types of participants and platforms on the internet.
They are now functionally very different from each other, and will require different types of guardrails and regulatory requirements.
The Minister also said that the constitutional protections for freedom of expression, under Article 19, will be given priority over in comparison to social media platforms’ own moderation policies.

Background:

The Central government in December 2022 had released the draft Digital India Bill for public consultation by the end of this month.
The Digital India Act will subsume the Information Technology Act 2020, which according to experts and government officials need a revamp owing to changing internet scenarios.
The Digital India Act would further cover other aspects such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), deepfakes, cybercrime, competition issues and data protection.
The government is also expected to introduce stringent regulations on privacy-invasive devices such as spy camera glasses and wearable tech through the Digital India Act.
The proposed bill, alongside the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, 2022 whose draft was released recently, will contribute to the evolving framework which is light on regulation, safeguards consumer rights and catalyses innovation.

Key aspects of Digital India Bill:

The government is considering a departure from the long-held understanding of ‘intermediaries’ on the Internet – sites that typically act as a platform for users to access services on the Internet.
Present Scenario :Under the Information Technology Act, 2000, there is no classification of intermediaries.
Proposal :
- The new law will prescribe different kinds of intermediaries because their regulation has to be different.
- Intermediaries will be bucketed as social media platforms, e-commerce platforms, AI platforms, fact-checking platforms etc.
New Regulator for Internet :
- The new Bill is also expected to prescribe a new regulator for the online space along the lines of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) or the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
- The new law is also expected to introduce penal consequences for violations, and prescribe governing provisions for emerging technologies like the metaverse and blockchain.
- Once finalised, the Bill will impact Big Tech companies like Google, Amazon, Meta, Amazon and Apple, among others.

About Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022:

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology formulated a draft Bill, titled ‘The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022’.
The purpose of the draft Bill is to provide for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognizes both the right of individuals to protect their personal data and the need to process personal data for lawful purposes.
The Bill frames out the rights and duties of the citizen (Digital Nagrik) on one hand and the obligations to use collected data lawfully of the Data Fiduciary on the other hand.