The Union government on Monday issued a proposal to send takedown notices to independent news creators for their content on platforms under a draft amendment to the 2021 Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules.
The draft amendments permit the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to recommend issuing blocking orders and requiring creators to apologise or make changes to the content if they are found guilty of grievances received by an inter-departmental committee.
They also expand the role of the inter-departmental committee tasked with overseeing the implementation of the rules, empowering it to scrutinise content even without a complaint and to deal with matters referred to it by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Additionally, the draft amendments note that any advisories to social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and X by the ministry would, if not complied with, affect their safe harbour provision under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.
Removing the status would mean that the platforms would be liable for the content in question.
The proposal seeks to mandate compliance by intermediaries with ministry-issued clarifications, advisories, directions, standard operating procedures, codes of practice and guidelines, as part of due diligence under Section 79.
The fresh proposal came as part of a batch of changes to Part III of the Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, which governed professional media organisations till now.
The draft amendments are open for public consultations till April 14.
The proposal seeks to empower the ministry to issue blocking orders to news content posted by users not defined as publishers, and also to intermediaries such as social media companies.
An unidentified government official told The Indian Express that “in effect, the government now can ask companies for information regarding a news creator on their platform and send them blocking orders directly, if these rules are finalised in the current version”.
The official added that the draft amendments clarify this legal position.
Advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation on Monday said that the proposed amendments “signal a decisive turn toward executive-led content control, with profound implications for digital rights, platform liability and democratic accountability”.
It described the proposals as a “massive expansion of unconstitutional censorship and regulatory power”.
Urging the Union government to withdraw the draft amendments, the foundation said that it creates a “sweeping power for the ministry to issue binding instruments that are not anchored in law” such as clarifications, advisories, directions, standard operating procedures, codes of practice and guidelines that intermediaries must comply with as a condition of safe harbour.
“These are not anchored to the rule-making powers of the IT Act, 2000, and provide uncanalised power to MEITY [Ministry of Information and Broadcasting] despite it stating otherwise,” the foundation said.
The advocacy group also expressed concerns about the amendment allowing the inter-departmental committee to scrutinise content even without complaints.
The committee will comprise representatives from the ministries of information and broadcasting, women and child development, law, home affairs, electronics and information technology, external affairs and defence, among others.
The advocacy group said that the committee, which was earlier limited to a three-tier complaint process, “now operates as a free-standing censorship committee that can take up ‘matters’ referred by the executive”.
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