The Supreme Court last week allowed the petition filed by Facebook Inc to transfer all cases concerning regulation of social media, pending in three different high courts, to itself. This marks the beginning of a decisive phase for the legal interpretation of intermediary guidelines, as well as the resolution of contentious issues surrounding data decryption. Experts say the next 2-3 months could potentially have far-reaching implications for tech businesses in the country.
The bone of contention has been interpretation of the IT [Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018, which lays out certain conditions for social media intermediaries operating in India. These