Digital India Bill: According to Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for electronics and information technology, the Centre would publish a draught of the Digital India Bill in the first week of June. As the government of India tries to replace the Information Technology Act, 2000, which has been in force for more than two decades, the new law will regulate a wide range of digital services, including social networking platforms. Tuesday’s second ‘pre-draft’ consultation featured a speech by Chandrasekhar. The consultation’s initial round was held in March.
India’s Framework Includes Digital Personal Data
The drafted Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, the Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022, and a policy for non-personal data governance are all components of a comprehensive framework of technological rules that the Centre is constructing. The Digital India Bill is one of these components. The minister stated again during his presentation that the government was debating whether to make safe harbour protections, which are now provided to internet platforms under the IT Act of 2000, conditional, or to keep them in place. Section 79 of the IT Act of 2000 grants intermediaries, such as social media platforms, legal immunity from third-party content as long as they take specific precautions, such as removing content ordered by the government.
Changes in Immunity and Removal of Government-related Content by Social Media Platforms
More restrictions have been imposed to the immunity since the Information Technology Rules of 2021 and later changes to the rules. Most recently, the IT Ministry stated that social media platforms will have to remove government-related content that is detected by a yet-to-be-notified fact-checking agency in order to avoid liability and legal action. One of the fundamental issues the Centre is debating is whether there should be any safe harbour provisions for online platforms given the swift nature changes of platforms on the Internet, according to Chandrasekhar.
Proposed Regulation of ChatGPT and User Harm Perspective
The proposed regulation, according to Chandrasekhar, will regulate new technologies like ChatGPT from the “prism of user harm.” According to sources, the government was evaluating a number of harms, including intentional disinformation, cyberbullying, doxxing, and identity theft. In addition, our publication was the first to announce in December 2022 that the government was considering classifying intermediaries and establishing distinct regulations for them under the Digital India Act, which may possibly cover fact-checking websites. The categories were supported by Chandrasekhar’s presentation on Tuesday. Under the Digital India Bill, an efficient adjudicatory process would also be investigated. According to him, the mechanism should be simple to use, provide citizens with prompt remedies, settle online conflicts, and develop future-oriented cyber jurisprudence.
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