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20/02/2019 - Government Policies

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February 20, 2019

Discuss the policy prescriptions that are required for the country to regulate the content on web and also to provide clarity to the law curbing unlawful content. (200 Words)

Refer - Business Line

Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.

3 comments
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IAS Parliament 5 years

KEY POINTS

Rule 3(9) of the Draft of the Information Technology [Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018 released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTy) follows the that platforms using automated tools, for proactively identifying and removing or disabling public access to unlawful information or content.

This requires a reasonable regulation from the Government so that the restrictions clearly doesn’t violate Freedom of Speech, Expression implied in the Constitution of India.

Policy Prescriptions

·        Any policy prescription needs to be adequately piloted and tested before implementation.

·        The first step towards framing an adequate policy response would be to segregate the content needing moderation based on the strong reason for them being problematic, defined in various circumstances.

·        The wordings like intermediaries, unlawful content must be comprehensively defined with various possibilities.

·        It is imperative that the nature of intermediaries to which a policy applies are clearly delineated. For example, Whatsapp, which offers end-to-end encrypted services would not be able to filter content in the same way internet platforms like Twitter can.

·        The first option, user-filtering, is a decentralised process, through which the users of an online platform collectively endeavour to regulate the flow of information.

·        Enhancing the present model of self-regulation, that the platform must publish all data related to public posts and the processes followed in a certain post selectively attaining ‘viral’ or ‘trending’ status or conversely, being removed.

·        Community driven social mechanisms. An example of this is Telengana Police Officer efforts to combat fake news in rural areas by using Janapedam , an ancient form of story-telling , to raise awareness about these issues.

The policy prescription must be an appropriate mix of empirical, logical, and legal analysis which results in the comprehensive framework for regulating the unlaw ful content in the web.

 

Nandadeep 5 years

Kindly review.thanks

IAS Parliament 5 years

Try including about community driven social mechanism for content regulation. Keep Writing.

AP 5 years

Answer. I didnt understand 2nd part of question. Could u briefly explain what was meant? Thanks

IAS Parliament 5 years

Clarity should be laid down on how far the regulatory powers of the government can extend so that it doesn't become authoritarian. 

IAS Parliament 5 years

Try mentioning about specific policy directions like self regulation of content by public, user filtering, Community driven social mechanisms etc. Keep Writing.

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