{"id":94097,"date":"2021-03-11T19:54:47","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T14:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=94097"},"modified":"2021-03-11T20:06:07","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T14:36:07","slug":"new-it-rules-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/new-it-rules-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Flaws in New IT rules 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code)<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/critical-analysis-of-new-it-rules-2021\/\"> New IT Rules 2021<\/a> suffers from numerous flaws. Due to this, experts have questioned their efficacy and legality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The online streaming industry has grown multifold in recent years and has made a unique space of itself vis-a-vis cinema and television.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the intended government regulation under new <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Information_Technology_Rules,_2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IT rules 2021<\/a> deters the creative freedom of industry. It is a grave concern at a time when the industry is already facing multiple challenges.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Challenges prior to new regulation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Multiple court petitions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have been filed against online streaming platforms due to inappropriate content. The concern generally pertains to religious sentiments or the display of obscene sexual content. The result is restrictions on artistic expression and viewer choice.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In some cases, <\/span><b>FIRs lodged directly<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> against the artists or company employees of platforms like Netflix and Amazon. This causes substantial harassment and undermines the personal liberty of content creators.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Flaws in new IT rules<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Inconsistency with Parent Act (Section 69A of IT Act):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Powers under Section 69A can be exercised in the interest of \u201csovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State etc. grounds.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, a <\/span><b>ground of decency and morality is not mentioned<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> under the section. But rules allow the government to regulate platforms on such ground.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, Section empowers the central government to direct \u201cany agency of the Government or intermediary\u201d to block access to online content. However, <\/span><b>online video streaming platforms do not fall <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">into either of these two categories but still are covered under the new rules.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Section allows the government to block access of any information to the public generated or transmitted on a computer. Nonetheless, rules give <\/span><b>greater power <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of demanding an apology or re-classifying the content that breeds subtle censorship.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Lack of Independent Regulation:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The proposed three-tier regulatory framework falls short of independent functioning.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, the Inter-Departmental committee which makes the 3rd tier will be mainly formed by bureaucracy. Further, there is no compulsory judicial\/civil society representation at this level.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, the review committee constituted under Rule 419A of the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951 for examining the government order, comprises only government officials.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Way Forward:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government should<\/span><b> release a white paper <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stating the intended objectives to be achieved by regulating online streaming platforms. Prior to this, a meaningful public consultation involving all the concerned stakeholders should be done.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, if stringent regulation is desired, then it <\/span><b>must be done through the legislative branch<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. As executive rule-making power under Section 69A never contemplated the creation of such an elaborate regulatory framework.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/new-it-rules-ott-platforms-content-youtube-netflix-amazon-7222873\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">indianexpress<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: The new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) New IT Rules 2021 suffers from numerous flaws. Due to this, experts have questioned their efficacy and legality.\u00a0 Background: The online streaming industry has grown multifold in recent years and has made a unique space of itself vis-a-vis cinema and television. However, the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/new-it-rules-2021\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Flaws in New IT rules 2021<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"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-94097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-sec_1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700783134,"cached_date":1700853644},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94097","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\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}