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      IT Rules : Government Issues FAQs

      The government said the new IT rules are consistent with the right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the Constitution, and do not place additional obligations on users.

      Releasing a set of Frequently Ask Questions (FAQs) around the intermediary guidelines, IT ministry said the rules have a clear focus on protecting online privacy of individuals, and that even with regard to identification of the first originator of messages, safeguards are in place to ensure that privacy of users is not violate.

      The FAQs seek to address queries that Internet and social media users may have about scope of the new rules, major changes it brings over past provisions, how the rules enhance safety of women and children, and due diligence to be done by an intermediary, among many others.

      The IT ministry said the rules do not infringe on right to free speech and expression.

      “The new IT rules, 2021 have been framed consistent with these rights. The rules place no additional obligations on users and do not contain any sort of penalties applicable on users,”.

      The IT ministry said the rules define ”social media intermediary” as an intermediary which primarily or solely enables online interaction between two or more users and allows them to “create, upload, share, disseminate, modify or access information using its services”.

      The IT ministry States :

      Any intermediary whose primary purpose is enabling commercial or business-oriented transactions, providing access to Internet or search-engine services, e-mail service or online storage service, etc. will not qualify as a social media intermediary,

      To qualify as a social media intermediary, enabling of online interactions should be the primary or sole purpose of the intermediary.

      “An entity which has some other primary purpose, but only incidentally enables online interactions, may not be considered as a social media intermediary,” it said.

      The scope of enabling online interactions would extend to facilitating “socialisation/social networking, including the ability of users to increase their reach and following, within the platform via specific features like follow/subscribe etc.”.

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      As per the ministry, offering opportunity to interact with unknown persons or users, and ability of enabling virality of content by facilitation of sharing would also amount to enabling online interaction.

      IT ministry will come out with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) around the IT rules and intermediary norms that would contain details of the appropriate agencies who will have the authority to issue takedown notices to platforms.

      The IT Rules, 2021 are meant to benefit general users, who are using any intermediary platform, adding that the norms provide for increase safety of netizens and ensure accountability of platforms by way of a robust grievance redressal mechanism.

      “The rules, by providing these reasonable mechanisms and remedies, strive to ensure that social media platforms remain a safe space for all users, free from cyber threats, harassment and unlawful content,”.

      According to IT rules, the chief compliance officer and the nodal contact person cannot be the same person whereas the roles of the nodal contact person and the resident grievance officer may be perform by the same person.

      The IT ministry States :

      “so, keeping in view the functional requirements of the nodal contact person and the resident grievance officer, it is desirable that SSMI (Significant Social Media Intermediary) appoints separate persons for the two roles,”.

      A parent SSMI can appoint common officers across its products/services.

      But the contact details to approach these officers are require to be clearly mention on each of those product and service platforms separately.

      To a question on whether detection of first originator of the message could compromise end-to-end encryption, the ministry clarified that the intent of the rule is not to break or weaken the encryption but merely to obtain the registration details of the first Indian originator of the message.

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      A typical principle of detection is base on the ”hash value” of the unencrypt message, wherein identical messages will result into a common hash irrespective of the encryption use by a messaging platform.

      The IT ministry States :

      “How this hash will be generated or stored needs to be decided by the concerned SSMI, and SSMI are free to come up with alternative technological solutions to implement this rule,”.

      To mention here that India enforce new IT intermediary rules earlier this year, aiming to bring greater accountability for big tech companies, including Twitter and Facebook.

      THANK YOU FOR READING.

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