Rules for invasive gadgets likely under Digital India Act, says MoS IT

The government on Thursday had its first consultation with industry stakeholders, policy advocates and legal experts on the broad principles of the Digital India Act (DIA), with the definition of internet intermediaries and their safe harbours among the top subjects of discussion.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that in the 2000s, there were few types of intermediaries and they had safe harbours, but now they have morphed into multiple types of platforms that are functionally very different from each other. These, he said, required “very different types of guard rails and regulations”.

Chandrasekhar also discussed rules to handle data captured by invasive gadgets like spy glasses and wearable devices, and told PTI that the DIA will be firmed up after two more rounds of discussion with stakeholders.

As part of online safety and trust principle proposed for the DIA, the minister sought views of stakeholder on mandating stringent regulation for privacy invasive devices such as spy camera glasses and wearable tech before their entry into the market with strict KYC requirements for retail sales with appropriate criminal law sanctions.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has been working on a draft Digital India Bill to replace the primary digital law, IT Act, 2000, and address challenges posed by the internet today.

Presenting the DIA’s goals, he said the new law should evolve through rules that can be updated, and address the tenets of Digital India — such as open internet, online safety and trust, accountability and quality of service, adjudicatory mechanism, and new technologies.

Section 79 of the IT Act says that an intermediary shall not be liable for any third-party information, data, or communication link that it makes available or hosts. This provides immunity to online platforms from legal action for sharing illegal content.

Chandrasekhar said the greater diversity and complexity of Internet platforms warranted a legitimate question: “Should there be a safe harbour at all?” “And,” he added, “If there is a need for safe harbour, who should be entitled to it? The whole logic of safe harbour was that I am a platform that has absolutely no power or control over the content that some other consumer creates on my platform. But in this day and age, is that really necessary and required?”

He added that in the current scenario, anonymity combined with platforms “pretending to be dumb intermediaries” had led to a situation of crime, illegality, and user harm.

In the past, the government has cautioned social media platforms that they could lose safe harbours for not complying with Indian laws.

The minister’s presentation proposed that the DIA could include principles on fair trade practices, choice, competition, online diversity, fair market access and ease of compliance for start-ups.

“Openness as a policy objective addresses these issues. We have to come up with solutions on how we deal with monopolies or duopolies, and big tech presence on the internet. As we go forward, we will discuss what the solution should be, whether it should be in DIA or the competition law.”

Nasscom queried about the regulatory design that the new law will create and possible provisions on start-ups and cyber security.

The minister said: “There are certain things that will be dealt with under criminal laws on user harm, illegalities and online crime. On the broader aspect of regulation, we would like this to be a design that is as light-touch, as digital, and as much not a conventional regulator as possible.”

Other important suggestions from stakeholders included considering the fear of multiple layers of regulations and possible overlap of rules among sectoral regulators such as the RBI or Sebi. Law experts also raised the issues of enforcement of provisions in the Bill and coordination with state enforcement agencies. The stakeholders added that the Bill should effectively govern emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain and deep tech.

The legislation may govern the digital space on key issues such as online harm, de-platforming, doxxing, and social media algorithms. The Bill, along with recently released draft legislations on the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill and Telecom Bill, is part of a “comprehensive legal framework”.