{"id":90878,"date":"2021-02-27T11:19:29","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T05:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=90878"},"modified":"2021-02-27T11:19:29","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T05:49:29","slug":"new-social-media-rules-an-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/new-social-media-rules-an-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"New social media rules &#8211; an analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The government announced The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The experts have welcomed the step but there are some cautious provisions in the new social media rules.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Background of the new social media rules:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rise of social media resulted in enormous controlling power in the hands of big technology companies. The government took this step to regulate the misuse of power by them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A core framework to determine intermediary liability was ensured by Section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act. This was supplemented by operational rules and SC\u2019s judgment in the Shreya Singhal V. Union of India case.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the intermediaries were kept immune for the content that is transmitted and stored by them. In return, they had to comply with a set of conditions that were set by the government.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is this set of conditions that got translated into Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The rules were jointly announced by the Minister for Information Technology and the Minister for Information and Broadcasting.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>About the new social media rules<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They contain fresh obligations for social media companies and platforms.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The user should be given a notice before its content is taken down. This improves the accountability of social media platforms.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government can direct messaging platforms to tie the identity of the user with the message transmitted by him\/her for strengthening traceability.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An oversight mechanism is being created for digital news media portals as well as for online video streaming platforms. It will perform a similar role like what the Ministry of Information and broadcasting does for T.V regulation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The body conducting oversight will also be empowered with censorship and blocking powers as per Rule 13(4).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Read more<\/strong> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/govt-announces-new-social-media-rules-to-curb-its-misuse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Social Media and OTT rules<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Criticisms of new social media rules<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Various aspects of rules <\/span><b>were not put for public consultation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> especially those related to regulations of online news portals and video streaming platforms.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rules allow the government to <\/span><b>enforce a<\/b> <b>traceability mechanism.\u00a0<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This simply means a <\/span><b>threat to the user\u2019s privacy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><b> It will<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> hamper the end-to-end encryption of platforms like WhatsApp.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the new rules <\/span><b>curtail free speech<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on these platforms, there will be <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a <\/span><b>sense of fear<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> among the users<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The IT Act doesn\u2019t cover content authors and creators like news media, but rules have included them. This provides discretionary powers to the government.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The proposed oversight mechanism <\/span><b>doesn\u2019t have any legislative backing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which is generally given to other regulators. For example, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act provided powers to TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). Under the rules, the regulation will be done by a body composed of bureaucrats. They might perform discretionary censorship.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Conclusion<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The proposed rules seem to enhance political control and enhance fear in the minds of users. They should have been formulated in a more deliberative way involving parliamentary processes. To protect citizen rights, India can frame a regulator like OFCOM in the UK. Anyway, the enactment of new social media rules is still a watershed moment that will transform the digital information ecology in India.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: The government announced The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The experts have welcomed the step but there are some cautious provisions in the new social media rules. Background of the new social media rules: The rise of social media resulted in enormous controlling power in the hands of&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/new-social-media-rules-an-analysis\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">New social media rules &#8211; an analysis<\/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":[1230,9],"tags":[1293],"class_list":["post-90878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-sec_1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90878","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=90878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}