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Influencers may face takedown notices, publisher-level rules under new IT proposal

New Delhi : News and current affairs content posted online by individual users will now come under the same framework as that posted by publishers, allowing for deletion, modification, even emergency blocking. And social media platforms will now have to comply with guidelines or advisories issued by the IT ministry (MeitY), or risk legal action. Both are changes in the IT Rules, 2021 proposed by the ministry, with a draft being released for public consultation on Monday. Comments can be submitted till April 14. The first change also significantly expands the information and broadcasting ministry's (MIB) blocking powers, including through the Inter Disciplinary Committee or IDC that hears cases. An ancillary change proposed is in how IDC functions, allowing it to take up "matters" as opposed to "complaints", thereby enabling it to weigh in on a broad and unspecified range of issues, not just formal grievances. "News items on social media are largely unregulated, which was the feedback we received from MIB. That is why these amendments have been proposed," an IT ministry official said on condition of anonymity. "If a regular user shares content from a news publisher, that too would fall within the scope of these rules. That's the broader idea." "These draft amendments mark a subtle but significant expansion of the MIB's powers. They extend Rule 14, that covers the powers of the IDC, to individual users posting news and current affairs content, effectively expanding MIB's jurisdiction into the user-generated content ecosystem. The changes also widen the IDC's role. It is no longer limited to handling escalated grievances and can now examine 'any matter' referred to it by the MIB, giving the executive greater discretion to initiate scrutiny of content," said Pallavi Sondhi, Senior Associate at Ikigai Law. The official quoted above also said that blocking powers under Section 69A of the IT Act, currently exercised by the IT ministry, could be expanded to MIB. It is understood that similar powers may also be considered for the home, defence and external affairs ministries. The proposal is under discussion, with the concerned ministries yet to submit their comments. The draft amendments come amid a spate of takedowns on platforms such as X, Facebook and Instagram under Section 69A of the IT Act. Responding to concerns that much of this content is satirical or critical of the government, another IT ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the removals largely involve deep fakes. "Because of whatever changes that have happened in the AI world, a huge quantity of deep fakes have started coming on social media. The platforms themselves have significantly ramped up their efforts, almost doubled or tripled the takedowns, at removing the deep fakes," said the official. This is the second amendment to the IT Rules this year. In February, MeitY introduced changes tightening takedown timelines from 36/24 hours to 3/2 hours, and expanding due diligence requirements for intermediaries, particularly around synthetically generated information or AI-generated content. Another big change brought on by the draft rules is on the intermediary side. The draft introduces a new provision that requires platforms to comply with any "clarification, advisory, order, direction, standard operating procedure, code of practice or guideline" issued by MeitY. This compliance is now tied to due diligence under Section 79 of the IT Act, which governs safe harbour protections. This means advisories that were earlier seen as guidance may now be treated as binding, and ignoring them could expose platforms to legal risk. "Advisories issued by MeitY are very much within the frame of the IT rules. And these advisories should at least be compiled by the platforms in their compliance reports. But we found that companies were not taking advisories seriously," said the first official quoted above. "We saw this even in the Grok case. In particular, advisories related to content harmful to women and children were treated as routine paperwork. That is why we now want to make advisories enforceable as well," added the official, referring to MeitY's run-in with X's AI chatbot Grok in early January, wherein MeitY demanded immediate action by X to prevent its chatbot from generating obscene and sexually explicit content. Raising concerns about the lack of safeguards, Meghna Bal, Director at tech policy think tank Esya Centre, said that there are "no checks except judicial recourse" and that the objective of the changes seems to BE " expedited enforcement rather than considered and measured governance." Under the draft amendments on data retention requirements, the government has inserted new wording in existing clauses to clarify that platforms must keep data for 180 days minimum, regardless of what might be written in any other law, clarified the first official. The clause further says, as it did before, that data may be retained for longer if any other law or authority requires it.

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