NEW DELHI: The Central government has called for consultations on proposed amendments to the Information Technology (IT) Act, which will require social media and online messaging platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp to track, identify and curb “unlawful content” on their platforms.
The draft amendments uploaded on the IT ministry website on Monday require that “the intermediary (social media platform) deploy technology-based automated tools or appropriate mechanisms, with appropriate controls for proactively identifying and removing or disabling public access to unlawful information or content”.
It also proposes that users be informed to refrain from hosting, uploading or sharing any content that is blasphemous, obscene, defamatory, “hateful or racially, ethnically objectionable”, while guarding against hosting or sharing information that violates any law, deceives or misleads receivers about the origin of messages that are grossly offensive or menacing in nature, or those that threaten national security.In its statement, the ministry said that the government was “committed to freedom of speech and expression and privacy of its citizens” and that it does not “regulate content appearing on social network platforms”.
However, Section 79 of the IT Act 2000 require these platforms to “ensure that (they) are not used to commit and provoke terrorism, extremism, violence and crime”.It also cited instances of social media misuse by “criminals and anti-national elements”, stating that these “have brought new challenges to the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA)...”
IT ministry officials had held a meeting last week with senior executives of Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, etc., to discuss the proposed changes with public feedback sought until January 15, after which a final decision will be taken.