Amid outrage over a plan to give powers to its arm Press Information Bureau to police fake news on social media, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday said that the government will hold discussions next month with stakeholders before the proposal is implemented.
The guidelines say sellers will be solely responsible for warranties and guarantees.
MeitY had stated there was a need to set up GACs as grievance officers hired by the platforms often did not address issues satisfactorily.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday clarified that any deposit in the form of bonus or incentives credited in a user account will be considered net winnings, and subject to tax deduction, in case of withdrawal. If these are used only for playing, then it's not liable for tax deducted at source (TDS). Further, in case net winnings do not exceed Rs 100 a month, the applicable tax need not be deducted.
The guild said that already multiple laws exist to deal with content that is found to be factually incorrect.
The latest ultimatum underlines the hardening of the government's stance on the issue of deepfakes and misinformation powered by AI, after the Centre categorically told platforms to crack down with urgency on doctored and manipulated videos rampantly being circulated on social media.
The Bombay high court on Thursday said that no matter how laudable or high the motives are while framing rules, if the effect of a rule or law is unconstitutional then it has to go.
"Muzzling the Internet and censoring online content through PIB is the Modi government's definition of 'fact checking'," Pawan Khera alleged.
The Bombay high Court on Tuesday said the recently amended Information Technology (IT) Rules against fake news on social media give "unfettered power" to a government authority in the absence of "guidelines and guardrails".
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Saturday clarified that the provision in the new digital media guidelines to block internet content in a case of emergency nature has been around as a rule since 2009 and was not recently introduced.
The government on Friday tweaked IT rules to pave the way for setting up of grievance appellate panels, which will settle issues that users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other matters.
A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale sought to know what constitutes a government business under the amended rules as it referred to the recent political developments in Maharashtra where "one party is moving to the other".
This is the first time that the IT ministry has outlined its stance in a dispute between users and social media platforms.
The industry came under scrutiny after the proliferation of games like cards, casinos, and fantasy sports among young people led to addiction and financial losses, with some reported cases of suicide.
The Bombay high court on Friday said the recently amended Information Technology (IT) Rules against fake content on social media against the government may be excessive, quipping that one cannot bring a hammer to kill an ant.
We gave them (Twitter) three months' time. Others have followed, they haven't. Rule 7 of (IT) guidelines says if you don't comply then under Sec 79 you may lose intermediary status and may become liable to other laws including penal laws of the country
Lashing out at the micro-blogging platform over non-compliance, Prasad said that it is "astounding" that Twitter that portrays itself as the flag bearer of free speech, chooses the path of deliberate defiance when it comes to the intermediary guidelines.
India's tweaking of IT rules allow formation of Centre-appointed panels, that will settle often-ignored user grievances against content decision of social media companies, Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, adding that this was necessitated due to the "casual" and "tokenism" approach of digital platforms towards user complaints so far.
Is it permissible in law for a statute to have unbound and limitless discretionary authority, the Bombay high court asked on Friday while hearing a bunch of petitions against the recently amended Information Technology (IT) Rules against fake news.
The comments assume significance as social media companies are facing the deadline of May 25 to comply with the new guidelines for digital platforms.
Social media needs to be made more accountable and stricter rules in this regard could be brought in if there is political consensus on the matter, Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in Rajya Sabha on Friday.
The salient features of the new OTT/social media policy announced by the Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on February 25, 2021.
Homegrown microblogging platform Koo said the new guidelines will help clarify the responsibilities of intermediaries.
The government has ordered internet companies to block 67 pornographic websites following court orders and for violating the new IT rules that were issued in 2021.
More than 6,000 URLs, accounts or websites were blocked in 2021, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
The submission was made before Justice Yashwant Varma who was hearing a batch of petitions concerning the suspension and deletion of accounts of several social media users, including Twitter users.
The Madras High Court on Thursday stayed the operation of certain sub-clauses of the recently introduced Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
The micro-blogging site has also said it may fall within the definition of a "significant social media intermediary" under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
The Centre has told all states and union territories that the power to administer the new rules on digital media publications has not been delegated to them, a day after the Union government overturned a Manipur district magistrate's order issued under the recently implemented guidelines.
IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday slammed Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the country's new IT rules, which has led to the United States giant losing its intermediary status in India and becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.
Google received 31,497 complaints from users and removed 94,173 pieces of content based on those complaints in December, the tech giant said in its monthly transparency report.
The single-judge bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit which dictated the operative portion of the judgement also imposed a cost of Rs 50 lakh on Twitter and ordered it to be paid to the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority within 45 days.
Google received 26,087 complaints from users and removed 61,114 pieces of content based on those complaints in November, the tech giant said in its monthly transparency report.
Journalists acting in a manner prejudicial to the country's "security, sovereignty and integrity" as well as "public order, decency or morality" will lose their government accreditation, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has said in its new guidelines.
In addition to reports from users, Google also removed 3,84,509 pieces of content in October as a result of automated detection.
The government has ordered the blocking of 45 videos from 10 YouTube channels that contained fake news and morphed content with the intent to spread hatred amongst religious communities, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said on Monday.
In a statement, the IT ministry termed WhatsApp's last moment challenge to the intermediary guidelines as an unfortunate attempt to prevent norms from coming into effect.
A fresh PIL was filed on Thursday in the Supreme Court challenging the Centre's decision to block a BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday closed proceedings in a petition alleging non-compliance of new IT Rules by Twitter, saying that 'nothing remained' in view of the central government being satisfied with the micro-blogging platform appointing a chief compliance officer (CCO), resident grievance officer (RGO) and nodal contact person.
The government on Wednesday informed Parliament that there is no proposal with the Information Technology ministry to set up a regulator for social media.
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