AIR Spotlight: New IT Rules on Fact Checking and Online Gaming

AIR Spotlight is an insightful program featured daily on the All India Radio News on air. In this program, many eminent panellists discuss issues of importance which can be quite helpful in IAS exam preparation.

This article is about the discussion on: ‘New IT Rules on Fact Checking and Online Gaming’

Participants:

1. Rajeev Chandrasekhar,  Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology
2. Kanchan Gupta, Senior Advisor, Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Context:  New IT Rules on Fact Checking and Online Gaming.

Introduction:

• The Union Government, on April 6, 2023, promulgated certain amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, under the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• These amendments are related to online gaming and spread of false and misleading information regarding the government. 
• This is the second amendment to the original IT Rules notified in February 2021, which was earlier amended on October 28, 2022.

Provisions to check fake news:

• The new rules allow a government “fact check unit” to identify false information related to any business of the central government. 
• The fact check unit can scrutinise online comments, news reports, and opinions about government officials and ministries and tell online intermediaries to censor them. 
• These rules also allow censorship by online social media companies, ISPs, and file hosting companies.
• Through these amendments, social media intermediaries or SMI (such as Twitter, Facebook, etc.) are now obligated under IT Rules to inform their users, to not ‘host, display, upload, or share any information’ which is ‘identified as fake or  misleading by fact check unit of the Union Government’ in respect of ‘any business of’ the Union government.
• Failure to carry out this obligation will take away the immunity from any civil or criminal liability as intermediaries for any third-party content hosted on their platforms. 
  • Section 79 of the Act provides immunity to  intermediaries from hosting third-party data, information, or communication.

Impact on Freedom of Expression:

• The IT Rules, 2023 do not define what constitutes “fake or false or misleading” information or the qualifications or hearing processes for the “fact check unit.” 
• The absence of protection for a “fact check unit” creates an arbitrary and discretionary power for the Union government. 
• The Press Information Bureau’s existing unit has been criticised for its lack of competence, and the IT Rules, 2023 provide no safeguards against such incompetence. 
• The proposed amendments have been criticised by the Editors Guild, Digipub, and the Indian Newspaper Society. 
• The lack of meaningful consultation before the notification of the IT Rules, 2023 is a cause for concern. 
• The government’s history of amending the IT Rules every year to extend its powers has been met with opposition.

Read more on IT Rules 2021

Rules on online gaming industry:

• The IT Rules of 2021 were amended to include the online gaming rules. 
• The online gaming self-regulatory body can deem an online real money game as permissible, as long as “the online real money game does not involve wagering on any outcome.”

Read more on New rules for online gaming

Impact on states:

• The Union government of India’s rules on online gaming have a significant impact on state governments’ power over gambling and betting.
• Under the constitution, the regulation of gambling and betting falls within the jurisdiction of state governments. However, the central government has the power to regulate certain aspects of online gaming, such as the use of payment systems for online gambling, under the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• To control public gambling, several areas, including Goa, Sikkim, Daman, Meghalaya, and Nagaland, have drafted specific regulations. However, not all of these states have rules governing online gambling because it is still a relatively new and developing industry.
• Amended rules aim to protect players and prevent illegal activities such as money laundering and fraud in online gaming. However, some state governments have expressed concerns about the central government’s involvement in regulating online gaming, arguing that it encroaches on their jurisdiction over gambling and betting.
• There have been debates and legal challenges over whether online gaming should be considered a form of gambling and whether it should be regulated by the central or state government.
• While the central government has taken steps to regulate online gaming, the ultimate decision on whether to legalise or prohibit online gaming remains with the state governments.

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