India launched a new set of rules to regulate social media content, streaming services, and digital news content. The new set of rules will bring all these elements under the purview of “government supervision”. Social media organizations will now have to keep a track of the “first originator” of any piece of information under specific circumstances. On the other hand, the online streaming platforms and digital marketing agencies will resolve the grievances while considering a “Code of Ethics”.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued ‘Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code after a press conference held by Law & Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Information & Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar. According to the Union Ministers, the new Information Technology Rules 2021, are meant to tackle the consistent abuse of social media and OTT platforms. Also, to stop spreading false news.
The changes might be the largest shake-up in the technology regulation space in a decade. The new Information Technology Rules 2021 might also supersede some segments of Information Technology Rules of 2021. Social media companies will need to take down unlawful content within a certain time-frame after they are served with a notice or a court order by a government agency. The new rule also includes an additional segment for sexual content.
According to the guidelines, any offending content or graphic that, “exposes the private areas of individuals, show such individuals in full or partial nudity or in a sexual act or is in the nature of impersonation including morphed images” – have to be removed by the intermediary within 24 hours.
Originator of Mischief
As we mentioned, the social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter will have to share details of the origin of a certain post or a tweet or a message if asked by a court or a governing authority. This will only be related to the sovereignty and integrity of the country, the security of India, relations with foreign states, public order, rape, or any other sexually explicit content.
According to Ravi Shankar Prasad, the social media platforms will have to disclose who started the mischief or who is the first originator of the message or tweet. In case the message originates from outside India, then the platforms have to share details about who was the first to share it in the country. Thus, the new rule could mean the one-to-one messaging platforms might have to break the end-to-end encryption code in India.
An Inter-Departmental Committee
There will be an inter-departmental committee comprising of representatives from the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Law & Justice, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Ministry of Defense & also the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team.
This committee will have ‘Suo-Motu powers’ to call hearings based on different complaints of violation of the code of ethics. The committee will have the power to censure, warn, reprimand, admonish violators, seek an apology, and take other actions. Also, the government will assign an officer, identical to the rank of a joint secretary or above. The assigned officer will be the “Authorized Officer” who will direct the blocking of content considering the new guidelines.
The Redressal Mechanism
According to the new Information Technology Rules, social media companies will also appoint a chief compliance officer to co-ordinate law enforcement. There will also be a “grievance redressal officer”. All of them have to be residing Indian citizens only.
As stated by Ravi Shankar Prasad, “Social media platforms have to set up a grievance redressal mechanism. This involves the shooting of complaints in 24 hours, redressal within 15 days. They also have to submit a monthly compliance report to the government.”
Also, the social media companies have to comply and assist in investigations or any other cyber-security-related issues within 72 hours of the request. The companies will have to keep a provision for the voluntary verification of the users. The Union Minister mentioned, “If you seek to disable access to the content of any social media user, you are required to give him reasons and also hear him”.
According to Ravi Shankar Prasad, the new rules will “empower the ordinary social media users”. He said, “The government welcomes criticism and right to dissent, and social media has been used to ask questions too. But it is very important that the users of social media may be given a forum for the resolution of their grievances against the misuse and abuse of social media.”
OTT Platforms
The government has also planned for a grievance redressal system for the OTT platforms and the digital portals. Under the new rules, OTT platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix will have to set up a mechanism to address any sort of grievances. Similar to the censor boards of the films, the OTT platforms will have to categorize their movies based on age. They have to list detailed classification of content depending on violence, age, sex, and nudity.
The rules will also enforce the streaming services to submit to the authority of a specific appeals body. It will be headed by a retired High-Court or a Supreme Court Justice. If this committee believes that any streaming content violates the law, it can send the content to the government-controlled committee to issue blocking orders.
Digital News Platforms
The new rules can also regulate news media platforms using a proxy. The Information Technology Rules of 2021 have a specific, “Code of Ethics and Procedure and Safeguards in Relation to Digital/Online Media”. This is applicable only to specific entities.
These ‘specific entities’ include “news and current affairs publishers” and also intermediaries that are related to the transmission of trending news content, online content publishers, and also the intermediaries that enable online curated content transmission.
This basically means every news website in India. Also, the rules lay down a three-tier structure to make sure the new regulations are followed. This includes self-regulation, regulation by the “self-regulating” bodies, and also “oversight by the central government”.
India is the largest market for both WhatsApp and Facebook users. According to Facebook, it welcomes the regulations that share ways to address different challenges on the web. Facebook stated, “The details of rules like these matters and we will carefully study the new rules.”
Also, according to a Twitter spokesperson, the company will study the new regulations. It is looking forward to keeping the continued engagement with the Indian government. “We believe that regulation is beneficial when it safeguards citizen’s fundamental rights and reinforces online freedoms.” – Twitter
The Risk of Censorship
Major tech conglomerates are coming under tight scrutiny throughout the world. Last week Facebook faced a backlash from a few politicians and publishers because it blocked news feeds in Australia regarding a dispute with the government on revenue-sharing.
Due to this, the Australian Government passed a law to make sure Facebook and Google pay media companies for the content. This is a step that both Canada and Britain want to follow.
The online news in India will be regulated maintaining the new rules from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. The new rules will also bring concerns related to the freedom of speech.
Apar Gupta, the Executive Director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, said, “To fix the problems in these sectors the government has adopted an approach which carries the risks of political control and censorship”.
According to the Information & Broadcast Minister Prakash Javadekar, “Media freedom is absolute but with responsible and reasonable restrictions. Self-restriction is called responsible freedom.”
The Three-Tier Structure
The publishers of content and news on different digital platforms will have to follow the “Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council of India and also the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Regulations Act”. According to the government, the new rules are necessary to “level playing field between the offline (Print, TV) and digital media”.
To make sure the “Code of Ethics” is adhered to by the digital media, the government will create a three-tier structure to address the user grievances.
- The first level will be self-regulation where a grievance redressal officer will be appointed by the applicable entity. The officer will make the decision on every complaint registered.
- The second is the self-regulation from the self-regulating authorities of the applicable entity.
- The final stage will be the monitoring of the central government.
The rules will bring a strict oversight mechanism of the government, involving different ministries and also a code of ethics that bans the content which hampers the integrity and sovereignty of India or threatens the national security.
