IT ministry empowers I4C to notify instances of cybercrime
Hindustan TimesThe Ministry of Home Affairs has notified the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre as the agency of MHA that can send takedown orders to intermediaries on illegal content related to cyber crimes under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act. A key issue was whether the central ministries and state governments need to specifically notify agencies in the official gazette to empower them to send takedown notices to intermediaries, including social media companies. This is evidenced by Meity’s January 2021 office memorandum, the MHA’s gazette notification in 2018 notifying the National Crime Records Bureau, and the MoHFW’s gazette notification in 2021 notifying an officer as authorised agencies under Section 79. “Section 79 erects a blocking process separate from Section 69A with a much lower threshold for issuing takedown notices and grants power to a much larger swathe of ministries, departments and law enforcement agencies,” Pavit Singh Katoch, general counsel at Inshorts, said in February.
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