Information Technology Rules, 2021

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 is secondary or subordinate legislation that suppresses India's Intermediary Guidelines Rules 2011. The 2021 rules have stemmed from section 87 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and are a combination of the draft Intermediaries Rules, 2018 and the OTT Regulation and Code of Ethics for Digital Media.

The Central Government of India along with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) have coordinated in the development of the rules.

Intermediaries had until 25 May 2021 to comply with the rules.

Code of Ethics and Guidelines

Regulation – OTT platform

Before 2022, There was no regulation body for over-the-top media services (OTT) in India. Last year in February, the Indian Governmentbr>
Introduce intermediate guidelines for social media and digital ethics code 2021 to regulate OTT platforms.
These rules include - information, self-regulation, and oversight mechanism.

*Code of ethics
* OTT Content rating, adult rated shows would be follow same ethics code and guidelines, when they will show sexual scenes, abusive language, and women representation in its shows, just like censor board

does, When he censor and certified the A certificate (18+) movie for theaters.
* Even with adult rating, nudity are not allowed (If in a show's scene, an actress is naked but she has covered her body with her hand or something, this would also be considered as nudity, and will be highly prohibited and punishable offence as per Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act).
* The time duration for showing kissing or sexual scenes in show/web series, should not be longer than two minutes, otherwise that scene or that show will be considered as Softcore Pornography, which is highly prohibited and punishable offence.
* Portraying" sexual relations between family (like- fathers in law, brother in law, sister in law etc.) or insulting religious or cultural sentiments is highly prohibited and will be punishable offence as per Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.
* Any content who can damage India's sovereignty, and foreign relations of India isn't allowed.

*Intermediary guidelines
* OTT would be classified the content in terms of age, based on the Cinematograph Act 1952.
* OTT platform would be appoint grievance officer,
* Officer will oversee and ensure that the publishers follow the Code of Ethics.
* OTT platforms needs to have a self-regulating body, headed by a retired supreme court or high court judge.
* An oversight mechanism will be established, headed by Mib itself, where immediate judgment needs to be passed.

History

During Monsoon session of the Parliament in 2018 a motion on “Misuse of social media platforms and spreading of fake news” was admitted. The Minister of Electronics and Information Technology accordingly made a detailed statement of the "resolve of the Government to strengthen the legal framework and make the social media platforms accountable under the law". MeitY then prepared the draft Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2018 to replace the 2011 rules. The Information Technology Act, 2000 provided that intermediaries are protected liabilities in some cases. The draft 2018 Rules sought to elaborate the liabilities and responsibilities of the intermediaries in a better way. Further the draft Rules have been made "in order to prevent spreading of fake news, curb obscene information on the internet, prevent misuse of social-media platforms and to provide security to the users." The move followed a notice issued to WhatsApp in July 2018, warning it against helping to spread fake news and look on as a "mute spectator".

In relation to the Prajawala case, on 11 December 2018, the Supreme Court of India observed that "the Government of India may frame the necessary Guidelines / SOP and implement them within two weeks so as to eliminate child pornography, rape and gang rape imageries, videos and sites in content hosting platforms and other applications." Further a parliamentary report laid in 2020 studied the effect of pornography on children.

On 5 January 2019 a government open house was held to discuss the Rules. Further, ten days were given for counter comments, until 28 January. On 21 September 2019 the Centre informed the Madras High Court bench under Justice M Sathyanarayanan that deliberations on the Draft Rules 2018 had been completed. Facebook wrote a plea to transfer the matter to the Supreme Court.

MeitY had invited comments on proposed amendments early in 2019. The amendments were seen by many to "overstep the aforesaid intention sparking concerns of violating free speech and privacy rights of individuals." It is seen that "the guidelines suffer with excessive delegation of powers and shift the burden of responsibility of identification of unlawful content from a government/ judiciary to intermediaries." A total of 171 comments were received by MeitY; all of the comments were published for counter comments. On 21 October 2019, MeitY asked the court for three months’ time for finalisation of the Intermediary Rules, 2018.

See also

* Information Technology Act, 2000
*Personal Data Protection Bill 2019
*'' Shreya Singhal v. Union of India''

References

Notes

Citations

Further reading

* Indian Express (Feb 26, 2021)
''Explained Ideas: What ails with the Centre’s new IT rules''
* Internet Freedom Foundation (Feb 27, 2021)
"Deep dive : How the intermediaries rules are anti-democratic and unconstitutional."
* (30 Dec 2019). "

'" LiveMint
* Torsha Sarkar (12 August 2019). "
Rethinking the intermediary liability regime in India
'" Centre for Internet and Society (India)
* Gurshabad Grover et al (31 January 2019)
''Response to the Draft of The Information Technology [Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules
/nowiki> 2018''">ntermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules">''Response to the Draft of The Information Technology [Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules
/nowiki> 2018'' Centre for Internet and Society (India)
* Joshi, Divij (January 31, 2019). ''Towards a Safer Social Media – Submissions to the Ministry of Information and Technology, Government of India, on the Draft Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules, 2018''. Available at SSRN

o

* Asia Internet Coalition (28 January 2019)
''AIC Submits Comments on India’s Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules 2018''

submission

* Esya Centre (30 January 2019)
''Response to the Draft Information Technology [Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules
/nowiki>, 2018''">ntermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules">''Response to the Draft Information Technology [Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules
/nowiki>, 2018''
* Consumer Unity and Trust Society (2019)
Counter Comments On The Submissions Received By Ministry Of Electronics And Information Technology On ‘The Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules, 2018’

* Yesha Tshering Paul (14 January 2019)
''Fake News: Misguided Policymaking To Counter Misinformation''
. BloombergQuint
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