New IT Law in the Works

STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS

New IT Law in the Works

The Indian Express has learnt that the government appears to have begun a fresh round of consultations for a completely new IT law “to deal with present and future circumstances”.

In February, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had released stringent rules under the existing IT Act for social media intermediaries, which was challenged by multiple stakeholders in different high courts. Both the Madras and the Bombay High Courts have stayed operation of key parts of the rules. The Bombay High Court observed that the new rules are “manifestly unreasonable and go beyond the IT Act, its aims and provisions”.

Senior government officials told The Indian Express that the new law, when it is put in place, “will subsume all these rules”, including the setting up of a grievances redressal and compliance mechanism, and officers. “Our goal is to ensure compliance. If there can be compliance without litigation, why not do that?” a senior official said.

However, the official said, there may be some tweaks to remove any criminal liability on the grievance and compliance officers appointed by intermediaries.

The new Act is also likely to contain provisions that cover “newer aspects of technology”, such as blockchain, bitcoin and dark net, among others. “The old IT Act of 2000 was drawn up mainly keeping in mind prevention of simple fraud, blocking of websites and illegal content of different kinds that existed then. A lot has changed. It would not make sense to amend the old Act. We would rather introduce a new law to deal with present and future circumstances that may arise,” an official said.

The new law, sources said, will define various forms of online sexual harassment, such as stalking, bullying, morphing of photos, and other methods, while also laying out clear guidelines on punishment for these offences, the officials said.

The new IT Act will also increase the onus on intermediaries for the content present and posted on their platform.

Another major change is a strict ‘age-gating’ policy, which will require the consent of parents when children sign up for social media websites. This plan has been opposed by social media intermediaries but officials said the Government wants to ensure that children below 18 are “protected and feel safe on the internet”.

Earlier this year, the IT Ministry’s new rules for social media intermediaries had led to a standoff with Facebook and Twitter with both finally appointing the grievance and compliance personnel mandated but also approaching court.


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