Over 8000 web links blocked under Sec 69A of IT Act

The government on Wednesday said it has taken action against over 8,000 links on social media in 2018 and 2019 under the Information Technology Act, 2000. 

The action was taken under Section 69A of the Act that empowers the government to block any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence. 

"A total of 4,192 and 3,847 complaints for blocking of URLs (uniform resource locators) under the above said provisions of Section 69A of the Act were received by MeitY (ministry of electronics and information technology) during the year 2018 and 2019 (till August) respectively," Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. 

The minister said the government has taken appropriate action to block URLs, following the norms prescribed in the rules notified under Section 69A of the Act. 

"Further, complaint related to privacy of individual is beyond the legal scope of Section 69A. MeitY is working on the Personal Data Protection Bill to safeguard the privacy of citizens, and proposes to table it in Parliament," Dhotre said.