Digital India Act could tighten rules around illegal content on the Internet: Minister

The Indian government is working to roll out a Digital India act that could act as a stronger rulebook towards offensive and illegal content on the Internet. Union minister of state for electronics and information technology, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, confirmed that the upcoming act in Parliament will likely cover more area when it comes to holding stakeholders responsible when compared with the existing IT Rules, 2021 and its recent amendments.

As per a report by Press Trust of India, minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar was addressing a conference on ‘Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM)’, hosted by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi when he confirmed the details of the upcoming Digital India act.

Confirming the intentions of the government to provide safer, more empowered access to the Internet, Chandrashekhar said that the existing IT Rules do not fully cover all safety concerns, especially those involving “internet-aided circulation of illegal, criminal and child sexual abuse material, and online gaming”. For this, the new Act will have certain provisions that are expected to make Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other intermediaries accountable.

He also touched upon the issue of anonymity on the Internet, by mentioning that criminals cannot hide behind the mask of anonymity online. “Even if a person is anonymous, the intermediaries have to disclose the originator of such content. The internet which was seen as a tool for the empowerment of the people morphed into an ecosystem that thrives on criminality and illegality, which is at an all-time high now,” he added.

There were no timelines revealed for the “digital technology law” as to when it would be tabled in Parliament. A few weeks back, the minister had talked about this upcoming Digital India Act being more principle-based than the current law of the land. He also mentioned that the regulations would enable a more “vibrant” startup ecosystem on the Internet. Currently, apart from that, no other details on the Act were revealed by the minister, considering something of this sort is still under the works and undergoing several revisions from different stakeholders.

To recall, in January this year, a new proposal by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) required online gamers to submit Know Your Customer (KYC) documentation to the platform they were to play on. The upcoming act could further the scrutiny in this sector.

The post Digital India Act could tighten rules around illegal content on the Internet: Minister first appeared on 91mobiles.com.

https://ift.tt/VB2ZNPU
https://ift.tt/pq0hwOU