HC seeks govt reply on plea against IT rules amendment
Hindustan TimesThe Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to respond to a petition filed by political satirist Kunal Kamra challenging two clauses of the Information Technology Amendment Rules, 2023. Bombay high court directed MeitY to respond to plea filed by Kunal Kamra over clauses of Information Technology Rules, 2023 The amendment empowers a fact-checking unit of the central government to declare any content online pertaining to “the business of central government” as “fake, false or misleading” and to take it down from the internet. The specific wording of the amendment that Kamra has challenged reads: “The rules cast an obligation upon intermediaries of making “reasonable efforts to cause users to not publish, display, upload or share information in respect of business of the Central Government that is identified as fake, false or misleading by such fact check unit of the Central Government as the Ministry may specify.” Kamra has challenged the validity of the amended Rules 3 and of the IT Rules, 2023 for being ultra vires to Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and violative of the principles enshrined in Articles 14, 19 and 19 of the Constitution of India. In the petition, filed through advocate Meenaz Kakalia on April 10, the stand up artist has contended that notably the rules do not define the term “business of the Central Government.” He has also expressed apprehension about misuse of the term “reasonable effort,” stating that the intermediary may simply take down the content, if the government’s fact checking unit identifies it as fake or make it unavailable for users in India, flag the content as fake, false or misleading or simply take steps to suspend or deactivate someone’s social account. He also contends that the amendments also infringe on the freedom of speech and expression, as the term business of the central government is “unconstitutionally broad and vague.” Vague terms have been used, he says, to “create a chilling effect where intermediaries will resort to take down any information flagged by the Central Government’s fact-checking unit, rather than risk losing safe harbour.” The rules, according to the comedian, make the central government the sole arbiter of truth in respect of its business obliging private parties to impose that version of truth on all users.
History of this topic
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