Union Minister of State (MoS) for Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar, in an exclusive chat with Republic Media Network Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, said that IT rules are not made for “company A or company B”, but for all brokers that make the Internet a safer place. It also stated that brokers are required to remove content if it is “harmful, misleading or inflammatory”.
The government on Friday tightened IT rules, paving the way for the creation of complaints appeal committees that will resolve issues users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their content complaints. and other issues.
When asked if Twitter’s new content moderation committee that Elon Musk announced Friday will be subject to government oversight, Rajeev Chandrasekhar replied: “I’ll be very clear that the rules are not designed for Company A or company B. Basically, I repeat again Our goal and objective is to partner with every internet broker with the ultimate goal of the internet being a space where 120 crore Indians can safely come and do what they do. I think that It is very important to understand that this is not adversarial to any These are the rules that platforms must follow in India if they are to maintain broker status.”
He said that an intermediary under Indian law under the IT act has special protection under Section 79 because they are immune from prosecution for any content on their platform.
“Each platform has a choice whether they want to be an intermediary or they choose not to be an intermediary and just carry content and be responsible for the content. If they want to be an intermediary, these are the rules and regulations that the Indian government has. Honestly , these rules and regulations apply to every platform, regardless of who owns them, what is the ideology of the owner or what is the ideology of the users of the platform. These are rules to ensure that the internet in India is always safe,” said the Union minister.
“Intermediaries must remove fraudulent content”
Regarding action against provocative tweets and hashtags similar to those seen during the farmers’ protest, Chandrasekhar said the newly amended IT rules are “very clear” on the issue of misinformation.
“The rules place a clear absolute obligation on brokers, not on media companies that report it, but on brokers who intentionally or unintentionally viralize stories. The brokers’ obligation is that if there is any manifestly false or misleading misinformation, they must take the content down. If they don’t take the content down, they still have the opportunity to have the content reported to them and have 72 hours to take the content down. The time for obfuscation about content that is harmful to citizens, misleading and inflammatory is over. ambiguity behind these rules”, said the MOH.
He stated that if brokers choose to be brokers then they must follow the amended rules. Chandrasekhar, who held a meeting with all the brokers today, said they are happy with this partnership model.
“I have explained to them in detail that this is not an adversarial challenge to their authority or their turf, but this is about the government and the platform serving Indian citizens and working together to ensure that the internet is safe and reliable and excludes all content that is harmful. I think the era of brokers weaving and weaving issues of false information and incitement is over. Now we have new IT rules which place a clear obligation on brokers to play their part in making the internet safer,” he said.
