Govt tightens rules for digital media and streaming services; experts discuss details

Further, such social media platforms would need to identify the first originator of the information in case an offence that threatens the sovereignty and integrity of India.

OTT platforms have been advised to self-regulate and be mindful of the impact of their content that could have on India’s sovereignty and security and its relations with foreign countries.

Further, they have been asked to self-classify their content into five broad categories and provide an option of parental lock for content directed at those above 13 years of age.

Online news portals would now be mandated to follow the Press Council's norms of journalistic conduct and the programme code under the Cable TV networks regulation Act. This, the government feels, would provide a level-playing field between offline and online media.

CNBC-TV18 spoke to Senior Supreme Court advocates Menaka Guruswamy and Sanjay Hegde, Apar Gupta, Executive Director at Internet Freedom Foundation, and NS Nappinai, Cyber Law Expert, to discuss the impact the new rules could have on the digital media cosmos.

Apar Gupta said, “That is our primary concern that it is not been created by any sort of deliberated mechanism including parliamentary scrutiny. These have been essentially parented under the Information Technology Act and specific to provisions only related to information intermediaries which will be companies such as Google, Facebook and internet service providers."

"The better route to take specially given how radical these changes are is to have possibly in hindsight have approached it through a process of transparency involving stakeholder inputs clearly stating these objectives and then possibly drafting a draft legislation and then having a debate in parliament, none of that has happened, I am terribly disappointed with the outcome today.”

Sanjay Hegde said, “Right now what the government is doing is precisely the same route that it followed with Aadhar, it was only after pressure from Supreme Court that finally an act came about. The history of all regulation in India is first the governments trying to regulate through an expensive interpretation of the rules.”