Information Technology Amendment Rules 2023

Source : The Hindu
GS II : Governance

Overview

Why in News ?

The Bombay High Court said words like, fake, false and misleading that are part of the new Information Technology Rules were
problematic.

News in Brief

• A group of petitions filed recently challenging the constitutionality of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code)

  

  Amendment Rules, 2023, were being heard by a division bench.

• Words like fake, false, and misleading are problematic in the IT Rules’ terminology.
• The only three requirements to mark information as false are those three.
• We are unaware of the Central government’s operations.
• The phrase “like fake” is quite troublesome.
• One could contend that something is untrue. Falsity forces us into a binary; fake makes no attempt to do so.
• Given that it is an opinion, the phrase “misleading” in the Rules is a very tricky issue.
• The Division Bench said that the term “misleading” is arbitrary and that what is misleading for one person may not necessarily be misleading for another.

Information Technology Amendment Rules, 2023

• The rules amended the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
• The purpose of the revisions is to compel online gaming and social media intermediaries to exercise greater scrutiny with regard to online games and incorrect or misleading material relating to government business.

Amendment Rules

• Union Government to regulate the online real money gaming industry Eg. rummy, poker
• Fact Checking Unit
  • No platform like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc can allow harmful unapproved online games and their advertisements.
  • They should not share false information about the Indian government, as confirmed by a fact-checking unit.
  • Fact check unit of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) will be notified.
• Registration
  • Online gaming platforms must register with a Self-Regulatory Body (SRB) that will decide whether or not the game is legal.
  • It will prohibit any forms of gambling.
• Intermediaries should take down the information that is marked as fake by fact checking unit.
  • This mean games that are not declared permissible would fall under the betting and gambling category.
  • Social media intermediaries will have to take action act or risk losing their safe harbour protections under Section 79 of the IT Act.

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