Hyderabad: On December 24, 2018, the Union ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) announced the Draft Intermediaries Guide-lines (Amendment). In this year-long period, the ministry has held consultations with experts on the subject. The latest draft of this document is yet to be made public. This is especially alarming since the government plans to notify these rules by mid-January.
The Centre had told the Supreme Court it will notify the rules after it was asked the status of the rules during proceedings while hearing petitions related to WhatsApp traceability.
A lawyer who has worked closely with free speech and internet advocacy groups said the ministry could have simply lied to the court. “I have spoken to many senior officials who have all said that the rules would be notified soon. But they don’t know when exactly. I don't think the government has decided or is even ready to notify the rules. There is too much pushback from companies and activists,” he said.
He explained that the government has been wary after it was criticised when it released the draft. “Companies are in panic-mode. They have openly said that they are simply incapable of complying with some of the rules. For instance, the rules require platforms to filter out objectionable content before it is posted. However, the companies don’t have the tools to do this,” he said. He added that if this particular rule is not removed or relaxed, many businesses would simply shut operations in India and leave. On a related note, the government is reported to be considering relaxing this rule. However, with regard to another major requirement - traceability of content - the government is quite adamant. Interestingly, the information ministry has always been opaque in the way it puts out information to the public. The lawyer said, “During the contentious data protection bill, the ministry refused to share even the public's comments made on the draft. They said it was confidential. How can public comments be confi
dential?”
He said it was unlikely that the rules will be notified in the currently prevailing atmosphere. “Right now the whole country is on the boil due to protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The government won't want to cause more trouble for itself. However, with this government, we never know what it is thinking,” he said. However, he said, the notification is imminent. “It will definitely happen sooner than later,” he added.
