Ministry of Electronics and IT re-posts draft amendments, with detailed reasoning, on its web site
Ministry of Electronics and IT re-posts draft amendments, with detailed reasoning, on its web site
Following the uproar over the proposed amendments to the Information Technology (IT) Rules, the federal government on Monday mentioned that the suggestions positioned the pursuits of digital Indians first and sought to make sure the Constitutional rights of residents will not be contravened by “big tech platforms”.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) on Monday reposted the draft amendments on its web site, inviting feedback from stakeholders within the subsequent 30 days. The transfer comes inside per week of the draft being pulled off the web site following a furore over the proposal that seeks to arrange a brand new panel, whose members might be chosen by the Central authorities, with powers to overturn content material moderation choices taken by social media platforms.
While no vital modifications have been made to the proposed draft, the Ministry has now added its detailed reasoning for the amendments.
Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted: “Putting Interests of Digital Nagriks [citizens] First. New amended IT (Intermediary) Rules are out for public consultation – more effective grievance addressal and ensuring constitutional rights of the citizens are respected.”
The notice uploaded together with the draft amendments says the amended IT guidelines search to offer further avenues for grievance redressal, aside from the courts, and “also ensure that the Constitutional rights of Indian citizens are not contravened by any Big-tech Platform by ensuring new accountability standards for SSMIs [significant social media intermediaries]”.
It additionally highlighted that this is not going to affect early stage or progress stage Indian corporations or startups.
“The goals of these rules are to ensure an Open, Safe & Trusted and Accountable Internet for all Indian Internet Users and Digital Nagriks,” the federal government mentioned, including that the prevailing guidelines have succeeded in creating a brand new sense of accountability amongst intermediaries to their customers, particularly inside Big Tech platforms.
However, because the digital ecosystem and related Internet customers in India broaden, so do the challenges and issues confronted by them, in addition to among the infirmities and gaps that exist within the present rule vis-a-vis Big Tech platforms, it mentioned. “Therefore, new amendments have been proposed to the IT Rules 2021, to address these challenges and gaps…A formal public consultation meeting will be arranged by Mid-June, and the details will be notified soon,” it added.
The broad ideas that underpin these amended guidelines, it mentioned, embrace that every one on-line intermediaries offering companies in India shall by no means contravene the Indian Constitution, Laws and Rules; observe them in letter and spirit; and “unlawful and harmful information violative of their own terms and conditions shall be quickly removed when reported by users, while also providing the users a reasonable opportunity to respond in case of significant social media platforms”.
It additional added that whereas the IT Rules, 2021, present for a strong grievance redressal mechanism, there have been many cases through which the grievance officers of intermediaries both didn’t deal with the grievances satisfactorily and/or pretty. “In such a scenario, the need for an appellate forum has been proposed to protect the rights and interests of users,” the MeitY mentioned.
Source: www.thehindu.com
