The government is considering not intervening between intermediary platforms and users, instead creating an adjudicatory mechanism to resolve issues faster, said Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Rajeev Chandrasekhar, ahead of the draft bill for the Digital India Act being finalised and released in the first week of June.
This comes at a time when governments around the world are working on regulatory frameworks to rein in technology giants and social media platforms, such as Meta, Google, and Twitter, to protect users and local businesses.
The Digital India Act (DIA) will replace the archaic Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, taking into account the necessity of regulating and safeguarding users in India's thriving internet economy.
Chandrasekhar's comments come at a time when there is a growing emphasis on regulating intermediaries, such as social media platforms, which are protected under Section 79 provision of the IT Act, 2000. The provision provides immunity to intermediaries to not be prosecuted for hosting third-party content that spreads disinformation, hate speech, religious incitement, etc.
He also said that the draft bill for the Digital India Act is considering "doing away" with Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000 entirely.
“The model of the government being in between the dispute of the user of a platform and the platform, can be replaced with the government stepping aside and saying this is the issue between the two of you. We can create an adjudicatory mechanism for those disputes, which will be fast, rapid and transparent but not have the government in the middle,” Chandrasekhar said at a pre-consultation conference for the draft bill in Mumbai.
The draft bill for the DIA is expected to be released in the first week of June and be open for consultation from June 7.
“I want to propose to you that we are actively thinking in the DIA to do away with Section 79 safe harbour completely, and say that it is the responsibility of the platform that hosts the content to do whatever due diligence they have for toxic, religious content, and the government doesn’t need to get into it with them having to flag freedom of speech,” Chandrasekhar said.
“We have moved from blanket immunity to conditional immunity. And in this day and age do we need any immunity for any of these platforms? We are deliberating this,” he added.
Chandrasekhar also clarified that the idea behind this policy is not to target specific big tech firms, platforms, or intermediaries.
“The law is not to fix a problem or fix anyone. This is really a process where we think that we are embarking on a new direction where it is a win-win for those who use the internet, those who are operating the internet for a better life and business, and those who provide services to them,” he said.
This was the second such consultation after the first pre-consultation in Bengaluru in March. The event in Mumbai had legal experts, think tanks and major corporates including big tech firms like Meta in attendance.
Another consultation is expected in Delhi soon, ahead of the release of the draft bill in June.
The government aims to enable the digital economy in India to cross $1 trillion by 2025-26.
Earlier on May 8, speaking on the sidelines of Moneycontrol's Policy Next Summit, the minister was asked if there is an effort to listen to both startups and Big Tech companies on an equal playing field.
“We will listen to everybody, on every policy step we invite everybody who's a stakeholder, big, small, Indian, foreign, and we do what is right by our country's interest,” he had said then.
“Around the table, we have everybody present. But we will certainly not allow the Big Tech companies to corner or grab policy. We will listen to them [Big Tech companies] as much as we listen to and give as much importance to our startups, especially Indian startups when it comes to policymaking,” he added.
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