Context- In the new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023, the Bombay High Court ruled that phrases like “fake, false, and misleading” were “vague and prone to misuse and thus problematic.”
Key Highlights
- The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, were modified by the rules.
- These amendments aim to require online gaming and social media intermediaries to exercise greater caution when dealing with online games and false or misleading information regarding government business.
Amendments wrt Real Money Online Games
- The amendment grants the Union Government authority to regulate the online real-money gaming industry, which includes apps like fantasy sports websites, rummy, and poker.
- The correction requires genuine cash gaming administrations, where clients store cash in assumption for rewards, to get themselves guaranteed as “permissible” by a Self-regulatory Body (SRB) comprising of specialists and industry individuals. ” Real-money games that do not solely depend on chance are probably considered “permissible.”
- The term “betting and gambling” applies to games that have not been declared “permissible,” making them subject to restrictions from states that prohibit such activities.
- In order to give the online gaming industry enough time to comply with its obligations, the rules will become effective once a sufficient number of self-regulatory bodies have been designated.
Comment
- The genuine cash gaming industry, which has fought States in court, has invited this correction, and demonstrated that they will consent. As a result, major fantasy sports apps and card games may not be affected if court orders recognize them as skill games.
- Under the Government of India (Allocation of Business Rules), 1961, the matter pertaining to online gaming rules was assigned to the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) in December 2022.
Amendments Concerning Fake News
- The Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) fact check unit will be notified as the official fact checker for the Union Government for misinformation and “fake news.”
- Social media intermediaries will have to take action if the posts have been flagged as false information by the government or risk losing their “safe harbour” protections under Section 79 of the IT Act. This section allows intermediaries to avoid legal action for what third parties post on their websites.
Comment
- Express measures to combat misinformation, also known as “false news” and “fake news,” are essential. However, this also raises the question of whether the Union government or its divisions are capable of acting as the regulating body.
- The Editors Guild of India and the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) contend that the government’s authority over what constitutes “fake news” and its ability to regulate platforms for publishing it will amount to repressive “censorship.”
- Without an option to pursue or the remittance for legal oversight, the ability to conclude whether any data is ‘phony’ or not can be abused by the public authority to forestall analysis, addressing or investigation by media associations.
- The procedure for issuing takedown orders is outlined in Section 69A of the IT Act of 2000, which these notified amendments could circumvent.
- Additionally, the amendments go against the ruling in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015), which provides specific guidelines for blocking content.
- Through Article 19 of the Constitution, press freedom is guaranteed in India. There is concern that the government may intend to “chill” the right to speech and expression on online platforms by threatening to remove a platform’s immunity for content flagged by a government unit.
.png)
