Indian Govt Sets New Rules For Online Video Services And Social Media

The government of India has released a new set of guidelines and rules to control what¡¯s being shared on digital content and streaming platforms.

The content will have a stringent oversight mechanism that will include multiple ministries and adherence to a code of ethics that, if violated, could lead to the banning of content.

PTI

This is under the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. These guidelines will, for the very first time, show how social media, OTT streaming and digital news organisations will be regulated by the government going forward.

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Information and Broadcasting Minister, Prakash Javadekar will soon release a set of guidelines that will offer more clarity on the aforementioned regulation.

A committee will be set up, involving representatives from the ministries of Defence, External Affairs, Home, Law, Information and Broadcasting as well as Women and Child Development. This committee will be responsible for overseeing the operations of the aforementioned platforms.

The committee will also possess ¡®suo motu powers¡¯ (action taken by a court of its own accord) to conduct hearings on complaints of violations of Code of Ethics. The committee can either warn, order censorship, removal and even reprimand violators.

For blocking of content, the government will appoint an Authorised Officer of the rank of a Joint Secretary or above.

Tracing original content

The draft also highlights that social media sites should allow traceability of the person who originally posted the content -- something that¡¯s contradicting the end-to-end encryption most messaging platforms promise these days.

For streaming content on OTT platforms, the draft forces services who¡¯ve objected to an independent appellate body for hearing streaming complaints to submit to the authority of an appeals body led by a retired high court or Supreme court justice. If the body finds that the content has violated any law, it would send the government-controlled committee for issuing blocking orders.

The draft also bars content that is defamatory, obscene, libellous, racist, harmful towards minors, threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India and its ties with other nations.

Reuters

After a court order, or notification, social media sites would be asked to remove or disable offensive or illegal content within 36 hours.

The draft also states that the intermediary will have to within 72 hours offer information to the government agency authorised for investigating cybersecurity incidents and violations of the law. The intermediary also has to disable access to content that¡¯s illegal and offensive within 24 hours of reception of the complaint.

It also asks companies to appoint a grievance officer who will receive, acknowledge and resolve complaints in 30 days.

An online grievance portal to receive and process complaints from the public on any violation of Code of Ethics which will be governed by a grievance redressal officer. This grievance will have to be addressed within 15 days.