The amendments to the IT Rules, 2021

Source: The post is based on an article “The amendments to the IT Rules, 2021” published in The Hindu on 1^st November 2022.

Syllabus: GS 2 – Government Policies

Relevance: amendment in the IT Rules, 2021

News: The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has notified amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021).

What are the IT Rules, 2021?

IT Rules, 2021 aims at placing obligations on Social Media Intermediaries (SMIs) to ensure an open, safe and trusted internet.

What was the need to amend the IT Rules, 2021?

1. a) to ensure that the interests and constitutional rights of netizens are not being breached by big tech platforms, b) to strengthen the grievance redressal framework in the rules, c) to provide edge to early-stage Indian start-ups form these compliances.

These amendments can be broadly classified into two categories – a) placing additional obligations on the SMIs to ensure better protection of user interests b) involving the institution of an appellate mechanism for grievance redressal.

What are the additional obligations placed on the SMIs?

Increased Compliances: The amendment has extended the obligation of SMIs to ensure that its users are in compliance with the relevant rules of the platform.

Further, SMIs are required to “make reasonable” efforts to prevent prohibited content being hosted on its platform by the users.

However, this has raised concerns amongst the users that the increase in the power of SMIs would allow them to breach the freedom of speech and expression.

Protecting Fundamental Rights: The amendment introduces an obligation to “respect all the rights provided to the citizens under the Constitution including in the articles 14, 19 and 21”.

However, frequent changes in the design of the platform arising out of case-to-case based application could result in heavy compliance costs for SMIs.

Prohibited categories: The amendment now obligates SMIs to remove information or a communication link in relation to the six prohibited categories of content when a complaint arises.

They have to remove such information within 72 hours of the complaint being made. This is an important step towards controlling the spread of the content.

Accessibility: The amendment now obligates SMIs to “take all reasonable measures to ensure accessibility of its services to users along with reasonable expectation of due diligence, privacy and transparency”.

There are concerns that accessibility may require SMIs to provide services of which they are not capable.

However, these obligations are meant to strengthen inclusion in the SMI ecosystem by allowing participation of persons with disabilities and from diverse linguistic backgrounds.

Multiple Languages: The amendments also mandate that “rules and regulations, privacy policy and user agreement” of the platform should be made available in all languages listed in the eighth schedule of the Constitution.

What are the newly-introduced Grievance Appellate Committees?

The government has instituted Grievance Appellate Committees (GAC).

The committee will be a three-member council out of which one member will be a government officer (holding the post ex officio) while the other two members will be independent representatives.

The GAC is required to adopt an online dispute resolution mechanism which will make it more accessible to the users and users can file a complaint against the order of the grievance officer within 30 days.

This has made the in-house grievance redressal more accountable and appellate mechanism more accessible to users.

What are the concerns associated with GAC?

1. a) the amendments have not made clear whether the users have to approach the GAC before approaching the court, b) there are concerns with the appointment made by the central government in the GAC as it can lead to bias content, c) the IT Rules, 2021 do not provide any explicit power to the GAC to enforce its orders d) it could lead to conflicting of the decisions if users approach both court and the GAC.