Draft amendment to IT rules 2021 – fake news

Draft amendment to IT rules 2021 – fake news

Subject : Governance

Concept :

• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) introduced these draft amendments to the IT Rules 2021 on Tuesday, as it extended the time for public consultation on regulations for online gaming platforms.
• News identified as fake or false by the Press Information Bureau’s fact check unit needs to be removed from social media platforms, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a proposed amendment to the Information Technology Rules 2021.
• The recent proposal introduced in the section ‘Due Diligence by Intermediaries and Grievance Redressal Mechanism’ of IT Rules 2021, says that intermediaries “shall make reasonable” efforts to not “host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit” such information on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Key Amendments to IT Rules, 2021

• New Guidelines for Social Media Intermediaries:
  • Currently, intermediaries are only required to inform users about not uploading certain categories of harmful/unlawful content.
  • These amendments impose a legal obligation on intermediaries to take reasonable efforts to prevent users from uploading such content. The new provision will ensure that the intermediary’s obligation is not a mere formality.
  • The amendment requires intermediaries to respect the rights guaranteed to users under the Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Indian Constitution, therefore, including a reasonable expectation of due diligence, privacy and transparency.
  • For effective communication of the rules and regulations of the intermediary, it is important that the communication is done in regional Indian languages as well.
• Amendments to the Rule 3:
  • The grounds in subclause 1 of rule 3 (rule 3(1)(b)(ii)) have been rationalized by removing the words ‘defamatory’ and ‘libellous’.
  • Whether any content is defamatory or libellous will be determined through judicial review.
  • Some of the content categories in subclause 1 of rule 3 (rule 3(1)(b)) have been rephrased to deal particularly with misinformation, and content that could incite violence between different religious/caste groups.
• Establishment of Grievance Appellate Committee(s):
  • Grievance Appellate Committee(s) will be established to allow users to appeal against the inaction of, or decisions taken by intermediaries on user complaints.
  • However, users will always have the right to approach courts for any remedy.