India’s New Rules For Social Media, Streaming, and News Platforms
And what it means for user privacy and content censorship
Last month, the Indian government issued multiple orders to Twitter to block certain tweets and accounts in relation to the ongoing farmers' protest. Twitter complied with the orders and blocked nearly 250 accounts, including accounts of investigative journalism outlets, activist groups, and prominent politicians.
These accounts, however, were restored within hours after Twitter faced a public outcry over political censorship. But the government doubled down by issuing a non-compliance notice and threatening jail time for officials.
Following this, Twitter once again blocked multiple accounts, but held its ground on accounts related to “news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians” saying that blocking these accounts would would “violate their fundamental right to free expression under Indian law.” If this incident were to happen this month, Twitter will be in violation of multiple laws thanks to the new rules issued by the government on 25 February.
What are the new rules and who do they apply to?
The new rules called the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 have been in work for some years now and are framed under the Information Technology Act, 2000. The rules supersede the earlier ones from 2011. They essentially govern the second largest internet-economy in the world.
The three main stakeholders of these rules are:
- Social media platforms including messaging apps (like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and YouTube)
- OTT streaming services (like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ Hotstar)
- Digital news publishers (like Scroll.in, The Wire, and MediaNama)
Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who introduced these rules, called them a “soft-touch oversight” mechanism. They are anything but that. Let’s dive into what the guidelines entail for the different stakeholders.
