Shruti Bist Advocate/Supreme Court of India
The increase in subscription of OTT Platform from 65 to 67 percent during the lockdown has directly impacted increase in cybercrime on women and children .Thenonregulations of Pornography, uncensored video, movies and violence and vulgar languages been show by non-government regulated OTT platform is damaging our culture and is provoking criminals to commit more crime on vulnerable sections of our country. Considering the increasing cybercrime National Cyber Security Council, WICCI worked towards regulation of OTT platform and forwarded representation to regulate the OTT regulation and bring intermediary guidelines on You tube channels and OTT platform and also to implement age gradation like in Singapore .
In Singapore Service providers are required to classify their content on the same basis as offline films – a) G: for general, b) PG: for parental guidance, c) PG13: for parental guidance for children below 13, d) NC16: for no children below 16 years of age, e) M18 for mature audiences (18 and above) only, and f) R21 for content restricted to people of 21 years and above only. Service providers are allowed to offer content rated NC16 and above only if provide for a parental lock function on their platform. Further, they are allowed to offer R21 content only if it is locked by default and the provider implements a reliable age verification mechanism. Likewise in India also it should be implemented said Dr Shruti Bist, National President of National Cyber Security Council ,WICCI
After years of discussions and debates and litigation in Supreme Court the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India has notified new rules under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“IT Act”) for monitoring social media digital media platforms. The new rules, viz. Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“Intermediary Guidelines”) inter alia aims to serve a dual-purpose: (1) increasing the accountability of the social media platforms (such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.) to prevent their misuse and abuse; and (2) empowering the users of social media by establishing a three-tier redressal mechanism for efficient grievance resolution. The Intermediary Guidelines have been framed in exercise of powers under section 87(2) of the IT Act and supersede the previous Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011.
I& B Ministry accepted the above contentions of National Cyber Security Council and implemented the Intermediary Guidelines 2021.
“Reference representation from Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WICCI) dated 22/10/2021. In order to put in place an institutional mechanism for publishers of news & current affairs on digital media and publishers of online curated content (OTT Platforms), Government has notified Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, on 25th February, 2021 under Information Technology Act, 2000. Part-III of the Rules, inter-alia, provide for Code of Ethics to be followed by publishers of news & current affairs on digital media and publishers of online curated content (OTT Platforms). The Code of Ethics for OTT platforms specifies general principles to be followed by the platforms for carriage of content, classification of content into five age-based categories, display of such classification, and restricting access to children of higher rated content. Schedule to the Rules lays down guiding principles for content classification and takes into account factors like portrayal of misuse of psychotropic substances, imitable behaviour, language, nudity,violence etc.”- Digital Media Section,Ministry of I&B.
Key Features of Bill-
Intermediary including a social media intermediary needs to observe the prescribed due diligence measures in the course of discharging its duties. These due diligence measures inter alia include:
i)prominently publishing on the website, mobile based application or both, the rules and regulations, privacy policy and user agreement for access or usage of its computer resource by any person.
ii)the rules and regulations, privacy policy and the user agreement should inform the user of its computer resource not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that inter alia:
iii)belongs to another person and to which the user does not have a right;
iv)is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, pedophilic, invasive of another’s privacy, including bodily privacy, insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, libelous, racially or ethnically objectionable, relating or encouraging money laundering or gambling or otherwise inconsistent with or contrary to the laws in force;
v)is harmful to the child;
vi)infringes any patent, trademark, copyright or other proprietary rights;
vii)deceives or misleads the addressee about the origin of the message or knowingly and intentionally communicates any information which is patently false or misleading in nature but may reasonably be perceived as a fact; and
viii)threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order, or causes incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence or prevents investigation of any offence or in insulting another nation.
A social media intermediary is required to enable the user who register for the services from India, or use the services in India, to voluntarily verify their accounts by using any appropriate mechanism, including the active Indian mobile number of such users and where any user voluntarily verifies the account, such user shall be provided with a demonstrable and visible mark of verification, which shall be visible to all users of the service.
GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM
Furnishing and processing of grievance.—(1) Any person having a grievance regarding content
published by a publisher in relation to the Code of Ethics may furnish his grievance on the grievance
mechanism established by the publisher under rule 11.
(2) The publisher shall generate and issue an acknowledgement of the grievance for the benefit
of the complainant within twenty-four hours of it being furnished for information and record.
(3) The manner of grievance redressal shall have the following arrangement±
(a) the publisher shall address the grievance and inform the complainant of its decision within
fifteen days of the registration of the grievance;
(b) if the decision of the publisher is not communicated to the complainant within the
stipulated fifteen days, the grievance shall be escalated to the level of the self±regulating
body of which such publisher is a member.
(c) where the complainant is not satisfied with the decision of the publisher, it may prefer to
appeal to the self-regulating body of which such publisher is a member within fifteen days
of receiving such a decision.
(d) the self-regulating body shall address the grievance referred to in clauses (b) and (c), and
convey its decision in the form of a guidance or advisory to the publisher, and inform the
complainant of such decision within a period of fifteen days..
(e) where the complainant is not satisfied with the decision of the self-regulating body, it may,
within fifteen days of such decision, prefer an appeal to the Oversight Mechanism referred
to in rule 13 for resolution.
A publisher of new and current affairs contents is required to adhere with the provision of the Code of Ethics, annexed with the Intermediary Guidelines. For the purposes of ensuring observance and adherence with the prescribed Code of Ethics by publishers and for addressing the grievances against the publishers, a three-tier grievance redressal structure has been prescribed, as below:
Level I is the self-regulating mechanism which inter alia appoints a grievance officer who shall be responsible for the redressal of grievances received by him;
Level II is the self-regulating body, i.e., there shall be one or more independent self-regulating bodies of publishers, which bodies shall inter alia be responsible to oversee and ensure the alignment and adherence with the Code of Ethics, address grievances which have not been resolved by the publishers within the fifteen days’ specified period etc.; and
Level III is the oversight mechanism, i.e., the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology shall coordinate and facilitate the adherence with the prescribed Code of Ethics by publishers and self-regulating bodies, develop and oversight mechanism for performing the prescribed functions which inter alia include publishing a charter for self-regulating bodies including Code of Practices for such bodies, establishing an Inter-Departmental Committee for hearing grievances, issuing appropriate guidance and advisories to publishers etc.
The Government of India has observed the models prevailing in different countries such as Singapore, Australia, European Union and the United Kingdom when contemplating the extent and nature of the proposed framework for regulating social media and digital media platforms in India.
