{"id":109296,"date":"2021-05-29T10:23:45","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T04:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=109296"},"modified":"2021-05-31T13:32:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T08:02:00","slug":"need-to-reform-the-information-technology-rules-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/need-to-reform-the-information-technology-rules-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Need to Reform the Information Technology Rules, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Synopsis: <\/strong>Though, the <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/flaws-in-new-it-rules-2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Information Technology Rules, 2021<\/strong> <\/a>has many positives there are some ambiguities that need to be addressed.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>What are the positive provisions in the Information Technology Rules, 2021?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Positives in the Information Technology Rules, 2021: <\/strong>It mandates duties on social media platforms such as\n<ul>\n<li>Removal of non-consensual intimate pictures within 24 hours,<\/li>\n<li>Publication of compliance reports increasing transparency,<\/li>\n<li>Setting up of a dispute resolution mechanism for content removal<\/li>\n<li>Adding a label to information for users to know whether the content is advertised, owned, sponsored, or exclusively controlled.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>What are the ambiguities in<\/strong> <strong>the Information Technology Rules, 2021?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>First<\/strong>, <strong>the Information Technology Rules, 2021 goes<\/strong> against some landmark judicial precedents of the supreme court.\n<ul>\n<li>For instance, in the case of <strong>Life Insurance Corpn. Of India vs Prof. Manubhai D. Shah (1992), <\/strong>the SC had stated that \u2018the freedom to circulate one\u2019s views as the lifeline of any democratic institution\u2019.<\/li>\n<li>The<strong> Information Technology Rules, 2021 <\/strong>makes the Government the ultimate adjudicator of objectionable speech online. It restricts the citizen&#8217;s <strong>right to dissent <\/strong>against the government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Second, <\/strong>the act violates the legal principle of <strong>colourable legislation, and<\/strong>\u00a0it is void.\n<ul>\n<li>For instance, the act was framed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY).<\/li>\n<li>Although, the <strong>Second Schedule of the Business Rules, 1961<\/strong> does not empower MeiTY to frame regulations for \u2018digital media\u2019.<\/li>\n<li>The power to legislate on digital media belongs to the <strong>Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Third, <\/strong>no alternative option for fair recourse by the social media intermediaries<strong>.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>For instance,<\/strong> an intermediary is now supposed to take down content within 36 hours upon receiving orders from the Government.<\/li>\n<li><strong>However, <\/strong>in the event of a disagreement with the Government\u2019s order, the Intermediary does not have an option for a fair recourse.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fourth, <\/strong>undermine the right to privacy by imposing a traceability requirement.\n<ul>\n<li>For instance, a User\u2019s privacy is protected by guaranteeing <strong>end-to-end encryption.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It does not allow intermediaries to have access to the contents of user\u2019s messages. However, imposing this mandatory requirement of traceability will break this immunity.<\/li>\n<li>This will also render all the data from these conversations vulnerable to attack from third parties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fifth, <\/strong>the rules empower a government authority to classify <strong>Fake news. <\/strong>In the event of the authority becoming arbitrary, ill-decisioned, and biased the purpose of eliminating fake news will fail.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sixth, <\/strong>the rules place a barrier on the \u201cmarketplace of ideas\u201d and also on the economic market of intermediaries by adding redundant financial burdens<strong>.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>For instance, <\/strong>the Rules requiring intermediaries to have Indian resident nodal officers, compliance officers, and grievance officers. Intermediaries are also required to have offices located in India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The above-mentioned issues in <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/critical-analysis-of-new-it-rules-2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Information Technology Rules, 2021<\/a> need to be addressed. Further, following provisions should be made in place. These include, to ensure citizen\u2019s right to have a private conversation, to engage in a transaction, to dissent, to have an opinion, and to articulate the same without any fear of imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=GI38K8KUJ.1&amp;imageview=0\">The Hindu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: Though, the Information Technology Rules, 2021 has many positives there are some ambiguities that need to be addressed. What are the positive provisions in the Information Technology Rules, 2021? Positives in the Information Technology Rules, 2021: It mandates duties on social media platforms such as Removal of non-consensual intimate pictures within 24 hours, Publication&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/need-to-reform-the-information-technology-rules-2021\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Need to Reform the Information Technology Rules, 2021<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,1351,1310,9],"tags":[1293],"class_list":["post-109296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-daily-news","category-daily-news-updates","category-public","tag-sec_1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700782830,"cached_date":1704887385},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}