{"id":34319,"date":"2023-04-09T08:11:36","date_gmt":"2023-04-09T02:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=34319"},"modified":"2025-04-20T12:30:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T07:00:25","slug":"amendments-to-the-it-rules-2021-will-platforms-have-to-take-down-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/amendments-to-the-it-rules-2021-will-platforms-have-to-take-down-fake-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Amendments to the IT Rules 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the Background in which these Amendments Released?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What does the New Amendment say on Fake News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Why has the Amendment Caused Concern and the Govt\u2019s Response?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What does the Amendment say on Real Money Online Games?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified amendments to the <strong>Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The amendment empowers the Union Government to <strong>designate an official fact checker for misinformation and \u2018fake news\u2019,<\/strong> and to regulate the online real money gaming industry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div data-oembed-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tHU-Y7rs23Q\">\n<div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tHU-Y7rs23Q\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the Background in which these Amendments Released?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Social media companies have <strong>traditionally <\/strong>enjoyed legal immunity (\u201csafe harbour\u201d) for content posted by users, as <strong>the IT Act 2000 treats them as intermediaries<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>According to the <strong>IT Rules 2021<\/strong>, they lose this status if they don&#8217;t have a grievance officer for India or don&#8217;t promptly respond to customer complaints.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/G59qtYAx_0Yn_bau9OSxEJODadY9rUOcwqkbko9wxySUetoCio9KkuUbkOjiVhrSwgAtDMQHLpKLf1bv6raVVkK3az_lViyJp0brpwVI_qpE7JD0MMXr_EQDAh4asSFrCJ1Bg3aap82a\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: IT Rules 2021<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What does the New Amendment say on Fake News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The fact check unit of the Press Information Bureau<\/strong> (PIB) will be notified as the official fact checker for the Union Government.\n<ul>\n<li>PIB has been \u2018debunking\u2019 WhatsApp forwards and news articles on Central Government schemes and departments for years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Now, the fact check unit <strong>could effectively issue a takedown order<\/strong> to social media platforms and even other intermediaries across the internet stack, for potentially bypassing the <strong>Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Section 69<\/strong> allows the government to issue <strong>content-blocking orders<\/strong> to online intermediaries such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs), search engines, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>If the PIB notifies any news as fake, social media companies <strong>will lose their \u201csafe harbour\u201d for such content<\/strong>, opening them up to lawsuits or other legal action.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>\u00a0<\/h2>\n<h2><strong>Why has the Amendment Caused Concern and the Govt\u2019s Response?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>According to organisations like the Editors Guild of India,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They were either <strong>not consulted or that their views were not taken into account<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The amendment is akin to censorship:<\/strong> Will have a chilling effect on the <strong>fundamental right to speech and expression<\/strong>, particularly on news publishers, journalists, activists, etc.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It is legally contentious<\/strong>. There is also a concern around the <strong>government changing course on different provisions<\/strong> in the same law.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lack of recourse:<\/strong> There needs to be a forum which can offer an additional avenue of recourse to users (before courts).<\/li>\n<li>The overarching question is <strong>&#8216;if the government should be the judge, jury and executioner&#8217;<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>According to the govt.,\n<ul>\n<li>This amendment did not constitute censorship, and <strong>would only remove social media firms\u2019 immunity<\/strong> if they decide to continue publishing &#8216;fake news&#8217; that has been identified as such.\n<ul>\n<li>This means, the platforms are free to keep content even after it is flagged as \u2018fake news\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The fact-checking setup will be<strong> credible, independent, and possess the necessary capacity<\/strong> (technical, journalistic, etc.) to verify information.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What does the Amendment say on Real Money Online Games?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The real money gaming services, <strong>where users deposit money in expectation of winnings<\/strong>, to be certified as \u201c<strong>permissible<\/strong>\u201d by a <strong>Self-Regulatory Body<\/strong> (SRB) consisting of experts and industry members.<\/li>\n<li>The \u201cpermissible\u201d real money games would <strong>likely be those where the outcome doesn\u2019t depend purely on chance<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The games that are<strong> not declared \u201cpermissible\u201d<\/strong> would fall under the \u201c<strong>betting and gambling<\/strong>\u201d category, opening them up to restrictions from States where such activities are prohibited.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is the IT Act 2000?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It is the primary law in India for matters related to cybercrime and e-commerce. The act was enacted to give legal sanction to electronic commerce and electronic transactions, to enable e-governance, and also to prevent cybercrime.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) How are online intermediaries in India defined?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Presently the definition of an &#8216;intermediary&#8217; has been broadened (by the IT Amendment Act 2008) to include &#8220;any person, who on behalf of another person, receives, stores or transmits any particular electronic record or provides any service with respect to that record.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/explained-will-platforms-have-to-take-down-fake-news\/article66714424.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Will platforms have to take down \u2018fake news\u2019?<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/business\/economy\/govt-says-fact-check-body-to-curb-misinformation-critics-allege-censorship-8546318\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>IE<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The amendment empowers the Union Government to designate an official fact checker for \u2018fake news\u2019 and to regulate the online real money gaming industry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}