On Saturday, Kapil Sibal, Former Union minister said that the new amendments enable an environment in which the government is safe but everyone else is unsafe.
Sibal said that the new amendments enable an environment in which the government is safe but everyone else is unsafe. He said if people make any defamatory statements on social media, they will be prosecuted and the only medium that the people had against the government would be taken away.
Kapil Sibal’s said, they were brought to ensure “comprehensive capture of media”. First, they captured the TV networks and now, they are going to capture social media platforms. It’s the comprehensive capture of media.
We are moving towards one code of conduct, one political party, one system of governance and no answerability to anyone,” the Rajya Sabha MP said. “Safe for the government and unsafe for others, that’s what the policy of this government always has been… The only platform left for ordinary citizens was social media; when statements defamatory are made… people will be prosecuted,” he added.
In response, the government, through its Twitter handle PIB Fact Check, said that Sibal’s statements were “misleading” and that the amended rules do not give any additional powers to prosecute.
“Former Union IT Minister Kapil Sibal in a statement claims that, under the amended IT rules, people making defamatory statements will be prosecuted,” the government-run handle tweeted. “This tweet is misleading. The amended IT Rules have not added any new provision for prosecution,” it added.
The new amendments to IT rules impose a legal obligation on social media companies to take all-out efforts to prevent barred content and misinformation, the government said on Saturday making it clear that, social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook operating in India will have to abide by local laws and constitutional rights of Indian users.
The new rules provide for setting up appellate committees which can overrule decisions of the big tech firms on takedown or blocking requests. The hardening of stance against the big tech companies comes at a time when discontent has been brewing over alleged arbitrary acts of social media platforms on flagged content, or not responding fast enough to grievances.
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. “That is not acceptable,” Chandrasekhar said at a media briefing explaining the amended rules.
