New Delhi: The Centre on Monday proposed changes to a law that could significantly expand its oversight of online platforms and even ordinary users, who post content on social media platforms like YouTube, X, Instagram and Facebook.
As per a draft amendment to Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021 notified by the ministry of electronics and IT (Meity) on Monday, social media platforms will have to legally comply with any clarification, advisory, order or direction issued by the ministry.
The same is significant, as currently, any such guidelines or advisories issued by the government are non-binding. In the absence of any compliance with these advisories, the companies could risk losing their safe harbour clause, which gives them legal immunity against the content posted by users on their platforms.
“An intermediary shall comply with and give effect to any clarification, advisory, order, direction, standard operating procedure, code of practice or guideline issued by the ministry, by order in writing, in relation to the implementation, interpretation or operationalisation of the requirements prescribed,” Meity said in the draft rules. Stakeholders can send their comments on the amendments proposed by 14 April.
An intermediary is currently defined as any platform that is protected against any form of prosecution by law, provided they comply with any intermediary rules mandated by the Centre. Such platforms typically host varying forms of content hosted by users, and claim limited liability in law provided they take steps mandated by law to prohibit harm.
Industry consultants said the amended rules could signal oversight on behalf of the Centre. Rohit Kumar, founding partner at policy consultancy firm The Quantum Hub, said that the amendment “appears to reintroduce, through definitional expansion, elements that were earlier proposed in the draft Broadcasting Bill but subsequently withdrawn following significant pushback.”
“By broadening the scope of who may be treated as a ‘publisher’, the government appears to be seeking to bring platforms like YouTube and other social media intermediaries, which host content created by individuals, under similar regulatory obligations,” he added.
To be sure, this is the second amendment the government is looking to bring in the IT Rules, after it sharply tightened enforcement timelines last month for taking down objectionable material from digital platforms. Non-consensual sexual imagery, including deepfakes, must be removed by a platform within two hours instead of 24 hours previously.
Any other unlawful content must be removed by intermediaries within three hours of a user report or a government or court order, instead of the previous 36-hour timeline.
Non-publisher users
Separately, through the amended rules, the government is also looking to expand its regulatory reach over non-publisher users. This means that news and current affairs content that is hosted, uploaded, modified, published, or shared on a platform by an ordinary user will now fall under the same regulatory scrutiny and potential blocking mechanisms that aimed at formal digital media publishers.
Non-publisher users are ordinary internet users who are not registered or formal publishers of news or digital content.
A representative for Meta Platforms said the company, which runs the world’s and India’s largest social media platforms, had no comments or additions for the time being. Spokespeople for Google and YouTube could not be reached immediately.
TQH’s Kumar added that while some stated clauses of the amendment “may seem benign, by opening the door for regulating social and political commentators and granting the government broad powers to intervene, we run the risk of serious censorship.”
Beyond these enhanced compliance and oversight measures, the draft rules introduce important updates to data preservation policies.
The amendment clarifies that social media platforms must strictly adhere to any existing legal requirements for preserving or retaining user information, even after a piece of content is taken down or an individual user decides to cancel their registration.
This ensures that digital records remain intact and available for potential legal or investigative purposes, preventing the permanent loss of crucial data when accounts are closed or posts are deleted.
Additionally, the draft modifies the role and scope of the government’s inter-departmental committee, which handles disputes over digital media ethics.
The committee will now be responsible for stepping in periodically when digital publishers fail to resolve user grievances at lower levels within the designated timeframes, or when MeitY directly refers an issue to them.
