The draft IT rules were published on March 31 and public comments regarding it can be submitted till April 29
The proposed changes would require social media intermediaries such as Meta, Google, and X to comply with a broader range of government-issued instruments
Failing to comply with the rules could result in intermediaries losing safe-harbour protections from liability for third-party content
MeitY has extended the deadline for submitting feedback and comments on the recently unveiled draft amendments to IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Stakeholders can now submit feedback to the amendments till April 29 from April 12 earlier.
The Centre bids to expand its oversight on digital media platforms and social media intermediaries like Meta, Google and X via tighter compliance requirements and content takedown obligations introduced in the proposed guidelines revision.
Issued under Section 87 of the IT Act, 2000, the proposed changes would require social media intermediaries such as Meta, Google, and X to comply with a broader range of government-issued instruments.
These include advisories, clarifications, orders, directions, standard operating procedures, and codes of practice tied to the implementation of the rules.
A key highlight of the draft is stricter content moderation timelines. Platforms hosting content that could potentially facilitate “unlawful acts” must remove such material within three hours of gaining “actual knowledge.”
This “actual knowledge” can arise either through a court order or via a reasoned written notice issued by an authorised government official.
Failing to comply with the rules could result in intermediaries losing safe-harbour protections from liability for third-party content.
Terming the amendments concerning, the Internet Freedom Foundation said that it “creates a sweeping power for MeitY to issue binding instruments which are not anchored in law such as clarifications, advisories, directions, SOPs, codes of practice, and guidelines that intermediaries must comply with as a condition of safe harbour under Section 79 of the IT Act.”
On Friday, Member of Parliament Nishikant Dubey said that the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, of which he is a member, has told the government that social media platforms like X should either remove the community notes feature or pay a “publisher’s tax” akin to one levied in Australia.
Reacting to the MP, the IFF noted that “no Australian statute treats a “Community Notes ” style feature as converting a platform into a “publisher” liable to any levy or tax.”
“These proposed amendments come at a time of fear and increased government directed censorship, especially of online political speech that includes parody and satire of the government, including the Prime Minister,” IFF had said at the time of publishing of the amendments, while calling for their immediate withdrawal.
In response to increased protest from digital rights organisations, civil society and social media giants against the new rules, electronics and IT secretary S Krishnan earlier this week claimed that the amendments are purely clarificatory and procedural and do not expand the government’s authority over online content.
He said that the move would simply shift oversight of the entire flow of news content online to the MIB, which already regulates registered digital publishers, as user-generated news content becomes more common online.
In a meeting held earlier this week that IFF’s founder and director Apar Gupta attended, Kishnan told attendees that some changes are being made to the amendments based on the feedback received, including greater definitional clarity around terms like “news” and “current affairs”.
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