New Rules for Digital India and OTT Platforms 2021

Context:

Due to growing concerns around digital information, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 has been framed.

• New Digital Rule to hold social media and over the top (OTT) accountable for contents.
•  These rules framed under Section 87 (2) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and in supersession of the earlier Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011.

 

Number of Users of Social Media in India (in Crore)

How and why the new rules were framed?

• In 2018, the Supreme Court, in a suo moto writ petition, observed that the Government may frame necessary guidelines to eliminate child pornography, rape and gang rape imageries, videos and sites in content hosting platforms and other applications
• In 2019, the Supreme Court directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to apprise the timeline in respect of completing the process of notifying the new rules.
• In 2020, the Ad-hoc committee of the Rajya Sabha laid its report after studying the alarming issue of pornography on social media and its effect on children and society as a whole and recommended for enabling identification of the first originator of such contents.
• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) prepared draft Rules and invited public comments in December 2018. It received 171 comments and 80 counter comments. These comments were analysed in detail and rules were finalised after an inter-ministerial meeting.

 
New Rules for Digital Media and OTT 2021:

• The Government notifies Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
• The new rules empower ordinary users of social media.
• Social media platforms have to establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving and resolving complaints from victims.
• They have to appoint a Grievance Officer to deal with such complaints and share the name and contact details of such officer.
• The platform will have to publish a monthly compliance report mentioning details of complaints received and action taken on the complaints as well as details of contents removed proactively.
• Platforms will have to trace the first originator of messages in offences related to sovereignty and integrity of India or those offenses which attract a jail term of at least five years.
• The platform will have to remove offensive content within 24 hours of receipt of complaints.
• The Government will also bring regulations for the OTT platforms.
• So far, there is no restriction on the OTT platforms.
• Publishers of news on digital media will be required to observe norms of journalistic conduct of the Press Council of India and the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act.
• A Code of Ethics has been prescribed for online news, OTT platforms and digital media.
• The OTT platforms will have to self-classify the content into five age-based categories --U (Universal), U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A (Adult). Platforms will have to implement parental locks for content classified as U/A 13+ or higher.
• For these platforms, a three-level grievance redressal mechanism has been established under the rules with different levels of selfregulation.
• There may be one or more self-regulatory bodies of publishers headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, a High Court or independent eminent person.
• The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will formulate an oversight mechanism.

On February 25, 2021, the Government announced the new guidelines for social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hotstar. Rules about digital media and OTT focus more on in-house and self-regulation mechanisms whereby a robust grievance redressal mechanism has been provided while upholding journalistic and creative freedom. The new rules seek to address peoples’ varied concerns while removing any misapprehension about curbing creativity. 

Issues of Digital Information:

There were growing concerns about the lack of transparency, accountability and rights of users related to digital media in recent past.

Fake news and disturbing developments were being reported on the social media platforms.

Rampant abuse of social media, sharing morphed images and contents had increased in the past few years.

These were not just a threat to the dignity of an individual but were also unethical.

Instances of use of abusive language, defamatory and obscene contents and blatant disrespect to religious sentiments through platforms were also growing.

From time to time concerns were raised on various forums, including Parliament and its committees, judicial orders and in civil society deliberations in different parts of the country.

Digital India programme has empowered the common man. The extensive spread of mobile phones and internet has also enabled many social media platforms to expand their footprints in India. However, there was a long pending demand to regularise social media, news portals and Over-the-top (OTT) platforms. Working on these demands, the Government has issued new guidelines.

References

PIB

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