27 Jun 2023: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

E. Editorials

Category: GOVERNANCE

1. Laying the foundation for a future-ready digital India

Syllabus: GS-2, Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Mains: Need of Digital India Bill and Way Forward

Context

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has been organising public consultations on the planned “Digital India Bill”.

New Digital India Bill

• The New Digital India Bill seeks to create a new legal framework to replace India’s 23-year-old Information Technology (IT) Act. 
• The objective is to improve the current legal system to address new issues including user injury, competition, and false information in the digital sphere. 
• This highly anticipated piece of legislation is likely to change the parameters of technology regulation both domestically and internationally. 
• The proposed changes include grouping digital intermediaries into discrete classes like e-commerce enterprises, social media platforms, and search engines to assign each kind different obligations and liabilities.

Need for the New Digital India Bill

• Ambiguous Definition of Intermediary: According to the current IT Act, an “intermediary” is any organization that stands between a user and the Internet. The three primary kinds of intermediaries that are subclassified by the IT Rules are “Social Media Intermediaries” (SMIs), “Significant Social Media Intermediaries” (SSMIs), and the “Online Gaming Intermediaries.” 
• Social Media Intermediaries (SMIs): Social Media Intermediaries (SMIs) are platforms that allow users to communicate and share information with one another. But because the term “SMIs” is used in such a broad sense, it can refer to a wide range of services, including email, video communications, matrimonial websites, and even online comment areas on websites. 
• Stringent Rules: The regulations impose strict requirements on the majority of intermediaries, including a 72-hour deadline for responding to requests from law enforcement and handling “content takedown” demands.  Unfortunately, cloud services, websites, e-commerce platforms, and ISPs all receive the same treatment.
•  Online safety: The Bill may change the IPC to make certain behaviours punishable, or it will create new offences for problems like doxing, cyberbullying, and revenge pornography. During the consultations, it was highlighted that specific rules for the online safety of minors will be suggested.
• No segregation of Intermediaries’ Platforms: Platforms used as intermediaries, like Microsoft Teams, have a restricted user base and pose less of a threat from information getting viral. The cost of doing business for these middlemen increases if they are treated like traditional social media platforms. Additionally, it increases their exposure to responsibility without actually lowering the dangers associated with using the Internet.
• Fair trade practices: The ministry intends to alter the competition regime in order to stop anti-competitive practices and prevent monopolization in the technology sector. The claimed objective is to avoid market power and gatekeeping concentration, while also preserving innovation to support developing technologies and defending online diversity. 

Global Experience 

• Europe: One of the most advanced regulatory regimes, the Digital Services Act of the European Union establishes three categories of intermediaries — hosting services, online platforms, and “very large online platforms” — and introduces various exclusions.
• Australia: In Australia, sectors including social media platforms and search engines are governed by distinct industry-drafted codes that are divided into eight different categories. The potential for exposure to hazardous content, such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or terrorism, requires intermediaries to conduct risk assessments.

Way Forward

• Minimising intermediary requirements and ensuring that regulatory tasks are commensurate to capacity and scale should be goals.
• There is a need for a classification framework that establishes a few clearly defined categories, necessitates risk assessments from intermediaries, and then uses the results to classify those intermediaries into the appropriate categories. 
• For the suggested strategy to be effective, risk assessment criteria and appropriate thresholds would need to be created and assessed on a regular basis in conjunction with the industry. 
• On the basis of the number of active users, the potential for harm, and the possibility of bad content spreading virally, intermediaries that provide communication services may be required to do risk assessments. 
• The biggest communication services would then be forced to abide by additional rules that include choosing officers who are based in India and establishing internal grievance appeals processes.

Nut Graf: The country aims to alter the laws governing the Internet economy, which has put India’s tech legislation at a crossroads. A modern law for a quickly expanding digital landscape will be vital to achieving the aim of a trillion-dollar digital economy.