INDIAN INTERNET INTERMEDIARIES
Deepfakes muddy protest coverage as online platforms restrict individual accounts
Several AI-generated clips have gone viral on Instagram, Facebook and X, drawing millions of views and comments. A recent viral clip of a woman criticising the protests, for instance, led users to an Instagram profile that regularly posts AI-generated political content.
Modinomics at 76: The birthday cake, the candles and the numbers
PM Narendra Modi turns 76 as he completes nearly 12 years in office, a period that has reshaped India’s economic landscape through infrastructure expansion, digitalisation, financial inclusion and policy reforms. While India has emerged as a major global economy, private investment, manufacturing depth and quality employment remain key unfinished parts of the economic story.
They'll have to comply with Indian law: Govt official on X's takedown visibility push
X's new transparency push seeks to make government-directed content restrictions more visible to users, and bring more clarity on takedown requests. It intends to disclose which government was behind such a request, and why the content was flagged.
Government aims to keep India's internet free from unlawful, obscene content: I&B Ministry to Lok Sabha
Minister of State (MoS) for Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs L Murugan informed the Lower House of Parliament in a written reply to a question asked by Prabhakar Reddy Vemireddy in the Lok Sabha today.
Govt aims to keep India's internet free from unlawful, obscene content: I&B Ministry to Lok Sabha
The government is dedicated to fostering a secure and accessible internet environment for all users. Their policies focus on safeguarding the Indian digital landscape from offensive content. Through the IT Act and IT Rules, a robust framework has been established to combat harmful online material. Recent amendments also tackle the risks associated with synthetically generated content like deepfakes.
Government reminds intermediaries to remove deepfakes or face legal consequences
In case of failure of the intermediaries to observe the legal obligations as provided in the IT Rules, 2021, "they lose their safe harbour protection under section 79 of the IT Act and shall be liable for consequential action or prosecution as provided under any law for the time being in force including the IT Act and the Indian Penal Code, including section 469 of the IPC".
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Removal of safe harbour provisions will harm small firms the most: Google Executive
"A framework that has a safe harbour from being responsible for all the content that's travelling over your systems is a cornerstone to ensuring innovation and investment in those technologies. If a company is liable for everything that is going across their system, they can be very hesitant about growing products and services to facilitate content," the vice president of government affairs and public policy at Google, Markham Cho Erickson said.
Failure to curb deepfakes may lead to action under IPC too: Official
On Tuesday, senior government officials from the ministry of electronics and information technology met executives from social media and other internet-based intermediaries. The meeting was chaired by the minister of state for electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
Social media companies have seven days to tweak terms of use around deepfakes: Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Intermediaries will have to “explicitly” warn users that they cannot “host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share” any content that belongs to someone else, is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic or invasive of another user’s privacy.
Final call to take down content left to intermediaries: Govt submission to Bombay HC
The Central Government in its submission to the Bombay High Court has clarified that the fact check unit proposed to be set up by the government will focus on patently false government-related content, and that its role is only to flag and present views on misinformation, leaving the final call to (take down content to) intermediaries.
Digital India Bill draft post consultation to be ready by July
The first consultation meeting on the Bill was held in Bengaluru on Thursday. It was attended by as many as 300 stakeholders, of whom more than 200 attended virtually.
Public feedback invited for fact check by PIB to strengthen due diligence under IT Rules: MoS IT
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said with the expansion of the Internet and more and more Indians coming online, the number of Indians exposed to false and untrue or misleading information available on the Internet has also grown.
Quarterly compliance audit soon for social media firms
The assessment, to be conducted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology from September, will check compliance on various parameters including the number of grievances received by intermediaries, the number of complaints received and resolved by the resident chief compliance officer, among others.
Tech-driven India will need to evolve its laws to address newer issues of online user harm: MoS IT
Digital platforms, be it big or small, need to abide by the laws and merely citing 'algorithms' cannot let intermediaries "off the hook" if that algorithm violates or infringes on fundamental rights of Indian citizens, Chandrasekhar said sending out a firm message to intermediaries amid rising concerns over spread of hate speech and misinformation on social media platforms.
SOPs on IT rules needed as 'guardrails' for consumers, investors; govt will deliver on it: Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Chandrasekhar in an interview to PTI said the IT Ministry is planning a massive outreach next year in form of a dialogue with public, consumer forums, academia, industry and others on the fast-evolving online space and what more needs to be done to ensure that internet is open, safe and trusted.
Internet must always remain open, safe; rules-based accountability important: MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar
"Internet for all of the good things represents the ability to deliver good governance, ability for last person in democracy to reach out to government... but also represents significant growth in things we refer to as user harm and criminality and so policy making has to address... grow the good, and address the bad in a manner that is transparent and effective," he said.
IT ministry to issue FAQs on intermediary guidelines soon: Sources
Earlier, there were reports, quoting sources, that the government has written to Facebook seeking details of the algorithms and processes used by the social media giant, following allegations that the platform failed to check the spread of fake news and hate speech
Tech companies lobby for change in IT rules
Industry lobbies are also pressing the government to finalise and publish the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for relevant provisions, which they claim will help ensure due process is followed.
The Internet Society, a digital advocacy body, says India must not force traceability
The new regulations, notified last week, require messaging apps to trace the originator of flagged messages that contribute to crimes of a severe nature.
Rajya Sabha panel suggests breaking encryption to trace distributors of child sexual abuse content
The panel also stated that that gateway internet service providers must bear a significant liability to detect and block websites showing child sexual abuse content, and all search engines must ensure that such websites are blocked during the search and report any website to authorities.
Global internet players urge govt to increase transparency on intermediary rules
The letter, sent in the backdrop of proposed changes to intermediary liability rules which are likely to be notified by January 15, highlights significant concerns with the rules and calls for improved transparency by allowing the public an opportunity to see a final version of these amendments prior to their enactment.
While Indian tech cos support Intermediary Guidelines, US firms stand opposed
Indian tech firms support most of the proposals while American players call the rules arbitrary
Supreme Court striking down 66A of IT Act victory for net users: Internet and Mobile Association
Internet and social media companies are often served with notice to block websites or pages carrying content that has offended petitioner.
IAMAI association moves Supreme Court against government ‘take down’ orders
IAMAI said the provision ran contrary to Section 79(1) of the Act which intended to provide "safe harbour from liability to intermediaries".
Online platforms may add Rs 2.5 lakh crore to GDP: Global Network Initiative
If the figure is actually achieved, the report says that online platform will contribute more than 1.3% of India's total GDP.
India's IT Act is 'ill-suited' to deal with social media: Global Network Initiative
Information Technology Act of India, is "ill-suited" to deal with social media and user-generated content, a report by GNI said today.
Why the Internet of the near future will be radically different
Several separate 'national internets' with differing, more regulated-than-before content, and where regulations differ across countries, is a possibility.
Social media sites may face new challenge in India and elsewhere
Facebook, Twitter, Google, Youtube and other web platforms are also under fire for hosting so called objectionable content.
New internet rules open to arbitrary interpretation
The government has introduced a liability on intermediaries such as Facebook and Google to "act within 36 hours" of receiving information about offensive content.
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