Description
Digital India Bill to be reaffirmed after two more rounds of talks (File) The government is reviewing the 'safe harbor' clause that exempts social media platforms from liability for user posts while it prepares a new Digital India Bill to replace the Digital Technology Act. . record. The 'safe harbor' principle of the Information Technology Act 2000 states that 'intermediaries' on the Internet are not responsible for what third parties post on their website.
But now, as part of a review of digital laws, the government is reconsidering the principle, Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Computing, said during a presentation in Bangalore on Thursday.
In 2021, the government introduced the Information Technology Rules (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Code of Ethics) that require platforms to remove posts when the government asks them to do so or when required by law.
In other words, Safe Harbor's protection is "earned," the government said, as long as the platform does its part to keep the Internet safe and reliable by ensuring that content marked "harmful to the user" is no longer hosted on it. .
"Since the 2000s, the platforms for which the safe harbor concept was applied evolved towards various types of participants and platforms on the Internet, functionally very different from each other and requiring different types of protection measures and regulatory requirements," he cited. The Hindu. the minister as saying.
"The Digital India Bill will be reaffirmed after another two rounds of discussions," Chandrasekhar said during a stakeholder consultation.
The bill is expected to be published in April and will be followed by several rounds of public consultation for about 45 to 60 days before being submitted to parliament for final approval, authorities said. Based on consultation deadlines, the bill is expected to be submitted to parliament in July.
In what was the minister's first consultation on the Digital India bill, he also discussed rules for handling data captured by invasive devices such as spy glasses and wearable devices.
Chandrasekhar said that legislation needed to be put in place over the next 10 years to catalyze the innovation ecosystem, protect consumers, be future-proof and future-proof.
"At a time when technology is being disrupted so quickly. There's AI (Artificial Intelligence). There's AI computing, there's blockchain, all kinds of big disruptive changes are happening. It's a time when this legislation was introduced. So , this legislation must be future-proof and future-proof,” he said.
