Digital India Act

Digital India Act

Subject: Governance

Section: Corporate Governance

Context: A new law — Digital India Act — is in works, which would incorporate all aspects covering cyber security, social media, digital services, personal data protection, etc, sources in the government said.

Concept:

• The government plans to further tighten intermediary guidelines for social media firms like Twitter, Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, and over-the-top (OTT) players like Netflix, Amazon, etc.
• Currently, Section 79 of the IT Act provides an intermediary status to social media companies. This status provides them exemptions and certain immunity from liabilities for any third-party content and data hosted by them. It’s only when these firms fail to remove or block any content as directed by the government that they are liable to face penal action, which may see their executives being jailed also.
• The upcoming guidelines aim to dilute the immunity granted to them from legal liabilities for hosting third-party content. In such a scenario, such firms, commonly referred to as intermediaries, may face higher legal risks.
• It is said that the government feels that safe harbour provisions under which intermediaries are exempt from legal liabilities is changing globally and India should not be behind. However, no fixed timeline or newer provisions replacing the existing ones have still been finalised.