As part of new IT rules, Centre allows blocking of independent news creators

The Union government has issued a proposal to send takedown notices to independent news creators for their content on platforms under a draft amendment to the 2021 Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules. The draft amendments allow the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to recommend issuing blocking orders and requiring creators to apologize or make changes to the content if they are found guilty of grievances received by an inter-departmental committee.

The draft rules also expand the role of the inter-departmental committee tasked with overseeing the implementation of the rules, empowering it to scrutinize content even without a complaint and to deal with matters referred to it by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Additionally, the draft amendments note that any advisories to social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and X by the ministry would, if not complied with, affect their safe harbour provision under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.

The proposal seeks to mandate compliance by intermediaries with ministry-issued clarifications, advisories, directions, standard operating procedures, codes of practice and guidelines, as part of due diligence under Section 79.

The new proposal came as part of a batch of changes to Part III of the Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, which governed professional media organisations till now. The draft amendments are open for public consultations till April 14.

The proposal seeks to empower the ministry to issue blocking orders to news content posted by users not defined as publishers, and also to intermediaries such as social media companies.