Information Technology Act

After two days of intensive questioning of Meta, the government on Friday shifted to technical discussions with the social media giant, during which the company detailed how it plans to address the Centre's concerns over deepfakes, child sexual abuse material and unlabelled synthetically-generated content on its platforms, sources said. Sources told PTI that the government has asked Meta to take specific measures and report back on the outcomes. Officials will regularly follow up with the company on its progress, sources asserted. One of the key issues discussed was the reappearance, continued circulation and virality of AI-generated harmful content, even after it has been flagged. The government also questioned Meta on why AI-generated videos without labels continue to remain visible on its platforms despite the IT rules requiring synthetic content to be identified and labelled, sources said. The government asked Meta to have greater human oversight in content moderation, with ...

Media and policy groups warn draft amendments could expand censorship powers, threaten free speech, and bring independent creators under tighter government control

The Centre has proposed allowing the I&B Ministry to issue takedown notices directly to individual users, expanding scrutiny of social media content under draft changes to IT Rules, 2021

Government may amend Section 69(A) of the IT Act to empower key ministries to issue emergency content takedown orders, expanding powers beyond MeitY

The government has just published updated draft amendments to the IT Rules of 2021, with several measures to check deepfakes

Meity amends IT Rules 2021; from November 1, only senior officers can flag unlawful content to intermediaries, with orders subject to monthly review at top level

The Karnataka HC dismissed X's plea against the Sahyog portal, calling it a public-good mechanism, noting that social media cannot be left in unregulated

Centre tells Karnataka HC that X is merely a notice board and cannot invoke Article 19; court to hear further arguments on IT Rules and intermediary liability

X says blocking done on government request, while the IT ministry claims no such request was made

Currently, several states have their own versions of rules for the gaming sector in the absence of a central government-determined regulation

X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, stated that arbitrary blocking orders pose a threat to its business model, which depends on users sharing lawful information

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a plea over issue of blocking of social media accounts or content without an opportunity to be heard to the creator or originator. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih sought Centre's response on the petition for quashing Rule 16 of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009. The bench issued notice on the plea. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for petitioner Software Freedom Law Center, said no notice was given to the "originator" of the information and a notice was only sent to platforms like X. "The challenge is not that the government does not have the power to take down information, but while taking down the information, notice should be given to the person who has put that information in the public domain," she said. The plea, filed through advocate Paras Nath Singh, challenged the validity of certain provisions of the 2009 Rules.

Prior to this, the IT sector was divided into software, services and hardware technology

The first draft of a new simplified income tax law, as proposed in the Budget, will be prepared by an internal committee of the tax department and will undertake stakeholder consultation before finalising the legislation, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said on Thursday. Malhotra said that the exercise is not linked to bringing a new direct taxes code, but a comprehensive review of the income tax law. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech earlier this week announced that a comprehensive review of the Income-tax Act, 1961 will be completed in six months. "The purpose is to make the Act concise, lucid, easy to read and understand. This will reduce disputes and litigation, thereby providing tax certainty to the taxpayers. It will also bring down the demand embroiled in litigation," Sitharaman said. To a question whether the review would mean that the government will come with a direct tax code, Malhotra said "It is not a new direct tax code... It is a comprehensiv

They have to 'figure out' how they want to implement age-gating requirement, says source

Rules referred to 2012 have been replaced with 2021 and there is no change in policy, says senior government official

The court also said the validity of the rules involves serious Constitutional questions and impacts the fundamental right to speech and expression

The notification came a week after the Bombay High Court refused to grant an interim stay on setting up an FCU under the IT Rules to identify fake and false content on social media

Justice Patel ruled in favour of the petitioners, striking down the rule and Justice Gokhale dismissed the petitions, and upheld the rule

As per a console page of Google Play, it currently allows only valid licensed or authorised gambling apps in categories like online casino games, sports betting, horse racing