Draft Digital India Bill in final stage, to be made public before December 31

The IT ministry is likely to release the Draft Digital India Act for public comments before the end of this month. CNBC-TV18 learned that the work is in the final stages of drafting the Digital India Act and it will be put out in the public domain for seeking comments on or before the end of this year that is before December 31.

What this act will do essentially, is it will subsume the Information Technology Act of 2000, which the ministry officials say is now obsolete and not at par with the legislative and regulatory requirements of this internet age.

As to what the Digital India Bill will seek to regulate, number one is India is likely to have a regulatory framework for algorithmic accountability. The sentiment within the government is that there is a need for an account for holding social media companies accountable for the algorithms they are using, that India will be taking a lead, and that there is no existing framework for ensuring algorithmic accountability.

Secondly, technologies such as blockchain, metaverse, the Digital India Act hopes to stay ahead of the curve by providing a legal framework for in fact regulating some of these technologies.

Another aspect that digital India will have a very clear focus on will be to dissuade social media platforms from hosting any content that is dealing misinformation, fraud, or content that is against national security. These are the broad contours, will get a better picture once the ministry puts it out in the public domain.