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

News Papers