Question : IT Intermediary Guidelines

Will the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology

(a) whether the Government is planning to amend the Information Technology (IT) intermediary guidelines to make the social media liable for advertisement and commissioned content on their platform and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether Government has any mechanism to stop/block the Uniform Resource Locater (URL) of any website which is spreading any misleading information or unlawful content and if so, the details thereof; and
(c) the details of websites which were blocked by the Government in each of the last three years due to their misleading information or unlawful content?

(a): Ministry of Electronics and Information technology is in the process of amending the Information Technology (intermediaries guidelines) Rules, 2011 to make the social media platforms more responsive and accountable. The rules are presently being finalized.

(b) and (c) : Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 empowers Government to block information from public access under specific conditions of (i) interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, (ii) defence of India, (iii) security of the State, (iv) friendly relations with foreign States or (v) public order or (vi) for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above.

The number of URLs blocked under section 69A of the IT Act, 2000 are 1385, 2799 and 3635 during the year 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.


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