JPC reports on Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill, 2019
Recently the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) has accepted the report on Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill, 2019.
The Personal Data Protection Bill aims to provide protection to the personal data of individuals. Also, for this purpose the data protection authority is to be set up following the Supreme Court’s 2017 order giving legal shape to the right to privacy.
The bill was referred to the JPC after differences of opinion among the MPs over several provisions of the law.
Key Recommendations:
- All social media platforms that do not act as moderators should be treated as publishers. Also, they should be held responsible for the content they host.
- No social media platform should be allowed to operate until the parent company controlling its technology has set up an office in India.
- A statutory Media Regulatory Authority on the lines of the Press Council of India may be set up to regulate the content on all such platforms.
- The committee has supported the controversial exception clause. This section allows any agency under the central government to “exempt public order”, “sovereignty”, “friendly relations with foreign states” and “exemption from all or any provision of law on grounds of security of the state”.
- The opposition has disagreed, as it gives unrestricted powers to the government. Additionally, the opposition has also sought parliamentary oversight of all exemptions provided under the Bill.
Source – The Hindu
