“Putting Interest of Digital Nagriks First”- tweeted by Mr. Rajeev Chandrashekar on 6th June 2022, Union Minister of the State for MEITY, draws attention to the new term – Digitals Nagriks. Who are Digital Nagriks? It’s us. The draft Rules under the Information and Technology Act’2000 i.e. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Social Media Ethics Code) Rules,2021 state it very simply and clearly- all Indians using the Internet, are Digital Nagriks. Quite catchy as a term. Isn’t it? The word Digital NAGRIK appears under the new Rules draft which has been released as a Press Note and published on the website of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on the 6th June 2022, and is open to feedback till the 22nd June 2022. It’s interesting to see how the IT Rules appear to be in consonance with the upcoming sooner or later Data Protection Act, as and when the same gets notified.
These Rules had come up in the light that there should be no compromise of the Constitutional rights of the Digital Nagriks by all online intermediaries, and that is the Right to Privacy, which had garnered a lot of attention due to the WhatsApp -Twitter and the Central Government friction last year.
The main attention of this draft is creating a hierarchy for redressal mechanism of grievance, updating the existing due diligence along with additional due diligence by social media intermediaries.
The time frame has been maintained to 24(twenty-four) hours for not only being limited to acknowledging the complaint, but further including suspension, removal, or blocking of any user or user account and redressal within 72(seventy-two) hours if there is a request for the removal of information and communication link as in the era of digitalisation and cyberspace it takes no time for any content to go viral like a forest fire, with a total time frame of 15 days for resolution.
There is also the proposal to set up the Grievance Appellate Committee to hear appeals against the decision of the Grievance Officer. However, this does not stop a user from moving the Court of Law.
The social media intermediaries include intermediary, social media intermediary and significant social media intermediary. Under due diligence and compliance, the Social Media Intermediary should prominently publish their rules and regulations, privacy policy and user agreement for access or usage by any user and ensure its compliance while making sure that the user is not in violation of the rules laid down thereunder relating to uploading, hosting. displaying, modifying, publishing, transmitting, storing, or sharing any information.
The additional due diligence for Significant Social Media Intermediary (SSMI) calls for appointment of a Chief Compliance Officer, a Nodal Contact Person, and a Resident Grievance Officer, who should be an employee of such intermediaries and specifically a resident of India.
The Rule that has been in the limelight for all such media intermediaries it to enable identification of the first originator for any information as may be required under Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for interception, monitoring, decryption of information) Rules,2009 However, it clearly states that such requirement shall be only by way of an order and to protect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State and like concerns. Nonetheless, the social intermediaries are worried and have raised concern as it would lead to breach of privacy.
While reading these rules a lot of similarity can be found between the Data Protection Bill which also calls for chief compliance officer and grievance officer. The SSMI’s here sound very similar to significant data fiduciary and certainly the new draft of the Data Protection Bill has been speaking in terms of social media intermediaries to be treated as publishers along with implementation of a mechanism to hold them responsible for content published by unverified accounts on such platforms.
It’s a very interesting space to keep a watch on as India is moving leaps and bounds towards digitalisation.
Author:
Rachna Shroff, Advocate with 12+ years of experience working as an in-house counsel with expertise in contract management, litigation, research, compliance, and advisory. She is also a Gold- Medalist in MBA-HR. I have been currently working in the e-gaming space. She is also a faculty for the Art of Living and conducts Happiness Programs
