Govt.’s draft rules to regulate social media echo SC orders-With the court voicing concern over irresponsible content, the proposed changes are in line with submissions on the issue
- The draft rules proposed by the government to curb “unlawful content” on social media that make it mandatory for intermediaries to trace the “originator” of such content have drawn strong criticism from the Opposition.
- The latter contend that the state is expanding the scope for surveillance of citizens.
- However, a close look at the draft Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Amendment Rules, 2018, shows that the proposed changes are largely in line with developments on this front in cases before the Supreme Court in recent months.
Court’s concern
- While the Centre itself has been informing the court since October about its intentions, the court has also voiced its concern over irresponsible content on social media.
Norms for access
- It proposes the publication of rules, a privacy policy and user agreement for access to a social intermediary’s resource.
- Rule 3 of the draft speaks about the “due diligence” to be observed by online platforms that have over 50 lakh users.
- Clause (1) of Rule 3 mandates that a user cannot host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, update or share information, for example, which is pornographic, paedophilic, racially or ethnically objectionable, invasive of another’s privacy, harms minors in anyway, etc.
- Besides, the draft rules put the onus on social media giants to “take all reasonable measures” to protect individual privacy as required under the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Information) Rules of 2011.
Comments (0)