No separate law yet to regulate digital media, says IT Ministry

There is no proposal yet to enact a separate law to regulate the digital media, and the matter is currently under consideration, said the Ministry of Electronics and IT on Friday.

To help achieve the aim of making Internet Open, Safe and Trusted and Accountable and to regulate the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, and in exercise of powers conferred by the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Central Government has made the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, said the Ministry in a written reply to Rajya Sabha on Friday.

These rules cast specific obligation on intermediaries to observe diligence and provide that if they fail to observe such diligence, they shall no longer be exempt from their liability under law for third-party information or data or communication link hosted by them, it said.

Such diligence includes informing the said rules to their users to make reasonable efforts to cause the users not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share, among others, information, including information published by digital media on the intermediary platform or such information shared on it by other users, which threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India or public order, or prevents investigation, or violates any law.

It also includes to not host, store or publish any information, including information published by digital media on the intermediary platform or such information shared on it by other users, which is unlawful, prohibited by law in relation to India's sovereignty and integrity, security of the State, public order, contempt of court etc., upon receiving actual knowledge in the form of an order by a court or being notified by the government under the provisions of the IT Act.

--IANS

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