Introduction
The Government of India had framed the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 in February this year. Social media firms operating in India would have to implement the new Information Technology Rules. These new guidelines gave social media platforms 3 months to comply with the laws made by the government. Social media platforms with more than 50 Lakh (5 Million) users come within the ambit of IT Rules 2021.
Misuse of Social Media
A huge part of our population are the users of social media platforms. This had caused the misuse of social media by some of the negative elements of the society. They spread fake news, share morphed images of women and other contents that are related to women and children which threatened their dignity and pose a threat to their security. Examples of abusive language, defamatory contents and hate speeches whether related to any person, group of people, the government or to the country.
Thus it was necessary to form such rules and regulations to protect the integrity and maintain the security of each individual. So the government came up with the Information Technology Rules, 2021.
What the Rules provide
- IT Rules, 2021, discusses the aspect of due diligence that intermediaries must obey. It also clarifies the scope of the safe harbour protections outlined in Section 79 of the Information Technology Act of 2000.
- Grievance Redressal Officer (GRO) would be appointed who should be a resident of India. The work of the Officer would be resolving the grievances of the ordinary users of social media platforms and OTT platforms. Special emphasis must be done so as to avoid the misuse of the platforms.
- A three level grievance redressal mechanism had been mandated. This had been done so as to ensure compliance with the Act and Rules. A monthly compliance report mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken on the complaints would be necessary. Following are some of the highlights of the IT Rules, 2021:-
- Identification of the originator of the information that hurts the unity and integrity of India.
- OTT platforms would have to classify the content into five categories and these categories must be based on age. Parental locks must be for any content classified as 13+.
- Removal of non-consensual intimate within 24 hours.
- Publishers of News on Digital Media would be required to observe Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council of India.
- Self-Regulatory would oversee the adherence by the publisher to the code of ethics and address grievances..
- Ministry of Information and Broadcasting would formulate an oversight mechanism.
Issues related with the Rules
The IT Rules, 2021 are made by the government in order to protect the citizens from the Cyber Crimes. Since every coin has two faces similarly these IT Rules are subjected to some issues which are as follows:-
- These rules are objectionable to our fundamental right of freedom of speech by taking the social media platforms under the control of government.
- End-to-end encryption would be weakened and privacy of our account would also be threatened as someone would be present, who would be watching our activities..
- Legally, the rules and regulations related with digital media must be framed by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. But IT Rules were framed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. This makes the Rules Ultra Vires..
- Intermediaries would supposed to block the content within 36 hours upon receiving orders from the Government. If they are unsatisfied or disagreed with the government orders, they would not be able to do anything due to strict timeline.
Response of social media platforms
The three-month deadline provided by the Centre Government to social media platforms to comply with the new guidelines ended on 26 May 2021. Facebook had all been set to comply with the provisions of IT Rules. Google had also assured the Government to comply with the new rules.
There is no clarity over the WhatsApp, whether the messaging app is ready to comply with the new IT Rules or not. But as per circumstances it is seen that the platform is ready either completely or partially to comply with the rules. Twitter has not till now revealed or given any official statement about whether it has complied with the new IT Rules 2021 or not.
The Way to Look Over the Issues
Freedom of Speech and Expression us often debatable as it becomes hard to identify whether the speech hurts any person, community, caste, class, religion or not. However it is known that no freedom is extremely unrestricted or absolute. It is said that if freedom exists, restrictions too.
It is known that the government does not want to interfere in our personal liberties and has implemented the IT Rules, 2021 so as to avoid the misuse of social media as much as can. But these rules will certainly effect our privacy, so the government should just once think over the issues presented by tech-giants and the experts. They must have the talk over the issues and must come up with the mid-way solution so as to ensure personal liberties of people as well as security of people from the misuse of social media. The government should also solve and answer over the questions raised by people and the other organisation.
Titiksha Agarwal