Union Govt seeks fresh comments on Draft IT Rules

What is the News?

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MEITY) has released a fresh draft of the amendment to the Information Technology(IT) Rules 2021.

What are the new amendments to the IT Rules,2021?

The Government has proposed the following amendments:

First Amendment: It requires intermediaries to respect rights guaranteed to users under the Constitution of India. This has been added because a number of intermediaries have acted in violation of the constitutional rights of Indian citizens.

Second Amendment: Government has proposed the requirement by intermediaries to address certain complaints regarding the removal of content from a platform within 72 hours. This is because there are chances of something becoming viral. Any other grievance will continue to be addressed within 15 days. 

Third Amendment: Government has proposed to bring in a new Grievance Appellate Committee which is aimed to give users an additional mechanism to appeal decisions made by grievance officers of intermediaries.

Note: Even after this amendment, the users will have the right to directly approach a court of law against the intermediary’s decision.

Source: The post is based on the article “Union Govt seeks fresh comments on Draft IT Rules” published in The Hindu on 7th June 2022.