Centre Notifies IT Amendment Rules 2022
Recently the Central Government has notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2022.
The Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021 were issued under section 87 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.
These rules have been issued for social media, digital media, and OTT platforms.
Key Provisions of the Amendment Rules
- Grievance Appellate Committees (GAC): The Central Government will set up one or more Grievance Appellate Committees (GAC) within three months. Each GAC will have a chairman and two full-time members. They will be appointed by the central government. The GAC will hear the appeals of social media users against the decisions of the Grievance Redressal Officers appointed by the Intermediary.
- Dispute Resolution Mechanism: An online dispute resolution mechanism has been arranged. Under this, the entire appellate process from filing appeal to decision will be available in digital mode.
- Responsibilities of Intermediaries: Intermediaries can develop and implement appropriate safeguards to prevent misuse of the grievance redressal mechanism.
- Time bound action: Companies have to acknowledge user complaints within 24 hours and resolve them within 15 The request for deletion of information has to be disposed of within 72 hours.
Concerns related to IT rules-
- These rules increase the control of the government.
- These can be used as an effective means to suppress government criticism and dissent.
- Grievance Redressal Officers have been assigned additional responsibility.
Why is IT Amendment Rules, 2022 needed?
- Malicious posts being circulated through social media platforms are fueling hatred among communities
- Self-regulation by social media companies has failed.
- The trend of fake news is increasing continuously.
- There is a lack of robust grievance redressal mechanism.
Source – The Hindu
