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85% intermediaries say new IT rules will negatively impact ease of doing biz
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IANS | 04 Jul, 2022
More than 85 per cent of social media and internet intermediaries feel
that the harsh compliance mandates in the new IT Rules 2021 would
negatively impact the ease of doing business in India, a new report
showed on Monday.
From the originator traceability to
keeping a threshold of 5 million users to be designated as a significant
social media intermediary in India, the industry stakeholders surveyed
during the report expressed concerns over several portions of the
Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines & Digital Media
Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, introduced by the IT Ministry in February last
year.
The report, titled 'IT Rules, 2021: A Regulatory Impact
Assessment Study', by the Internet and Mobile Association of India
(IAMAI) and The Dialogue, recommended enabling a progressive
intermediary liability regime, instilling procedural safeguards for
assisting law enforcement agencies, and furthering a uniform and
transparent content blocking regime.
On the content takedown
timelines, Rajya Sabha MP Dr Amar Patnaik said during a panel discussion
that "takedowns must be graded, cannot compare differing forms of harm
and put them in the same (regulatory) basket".
In the latest
draft, the IT Ministry had reiterated that the resident grievance
officers of a social media intermediary shall, within 24 hours,
acknowledge any complaints of users related to the removal of content,
suspension, blocking and removal of account of the user, redress the
problem within 72 hours, and dispose of it within 15 days.
Industry
stakeholders surveyed during the study expressed concerns over the
infeasibility of originator traceability mandated in the IT Rules 2021,
the many ramifications imposing personal liability on chief compliance
officers may have, and the impact due diligence requirements will have
on entry barriers and the ease of doing business.
A majority of
intermediaries and cybersecurity experts said that it was technically
impossible to introduce traceability on end-to-end encrypted platforms
without breaking the encryption technology itself.
"Majority of
the intermediaries noted that in a country like India with a population
of 1.3 billion setting a threshold of 5 million users to be designated
as a significant social media intermediary is quite onerous from an
economic standpoint," said the report.
While the government
published the FAQs last year which was a step in the right direction, a
detailed Standard Operating Procedure must be published by the
government explaining the criteria for calculation of the threshold and
guiding the executive's power to mandate any intermediary to comply with
the additional due diligence mandates, the report stressed.
"Majority
of the intermediaries dealing with large amounts of user generated
content noted that there is a need for grading the takedown orders
according to the degree of harm to enable sufficient time for assessing
the genuineness of the requests," according to the findings.
The
republished draft by the IT Ministry has also revealed the plan to form
an appeals panel that can reverse content moderation decisions by Big
Tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
In
republished draft changes to IT Rules 2021, the IT Ministry (MeitY)
stated that the new amendment "will not impact early stage or growth
stage Indian companies or startups".
This brings relief to home-grown platforms like Dailyhunt, ShareChat, and Koo.
The IT Ministry has sought public comments on the draft proposal in a 30-day time-frame.
The IT rules also require big social media platforms to help the government trace the originator of messages in special cases.
"The intermediary shall respect the rights accorded to citizens under the constitution," read the draft.
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