The government is expected to notify within two weeks the revised IT intermediary guidelines that seek to make social media companies more responsible for content on their platforms, two government officials told ET.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) will seek the law ministry’s views on the validity of the provisions in the draft document before notifying the rules, they said.
MeitY wants to make sure that the provisions in the draft do not overshoot the due diligence requirement under the larger IT Act.
“The law ministry is expected to finaise the guidelines in a couple of days, and there is time of another two weeks from the Supreme Court,” a government official said, requesting not be identified.
MeitY told the Supreme Court in October last year that it would notify the Information Technology [Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018 by January 15.
“The IT Act provides for intermediaries to conduct due diligence, but what all can be permitted under that provision has to be carefully considered,” the official said.
The guidelines propose additional responsibilities on social media companies.
These include verifying users through mobile numbers, tracing origin of messages required by a court order and building automated tools to identify child pornography and terror-related content.
All these requirements come under the ambit of under due diligence.
MeitY is, therefore, “seeking views from ministries, primarily the law ministry” on the validity of such rules under the larger IT Act.
“These requirements should not overshoot the provision under the Act, neither should they be so weak that they become ineffective,” the official added.
MeitY released the draft intermediary guidelines in December 2018, seeking to amend the Intermediary Guidelines Rules of 2011. The rules fall under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 which provides internet companies a safe harbour from content hosted on their platforms, but requires them to carry out a certain level of due diligence.
The guidelines have overarching rules for all the intermediaries operating in India, such as a proper privacy policy and updating users about it regularly, another government official said, adding social media companies as well as intermediaries will have to operate with a certain degree of responsibility.
Each clause in the guidelines is being scrutinized carefully as these rules will set a “global precedent”, the first official quoted above added.
The government’s move to classify intermediaries based on function better reflects the modern nature of the internet and will help ensure that the open internet remains a space for innovation and knowledge sharing, said Udbhav Tiwari, Policy Advisor, Mozilla Corporation.
“However, traceability and 24-hour content take down timelines continue to threaten the freedom of expression, privacy and security of users and should be urgently reformed before the rules are enacted,” he added.
ET reported last month that the law enforcement agencies will be required to obtain a court order before they can direct internet platforms to trace messages back to the originator, in order to make sure that they are not misused commercially or politically.
The earlier proposal on amending the intermediary rules of the IT Act released in 2018 did not have the condition of requiring a court order to trace back messages to senders on platforms. This had led to fears of unaccountable censorship by the government. Facebook-owned encrypted messaging platform WhatsApp has resisted the demand for traceability citing user privacy.
The new draft also suggests that companies should collect phone numbers of all users and verify it at least once every year. It adds that if the user is an organisation, social media companies can use an alternate verification method.
The proposed rules have also not budged on the requirement for companies to have a permanent registered office in India with a physical address and appointing a nodal officer for coordinating with law enforcement agencies round the clock.
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