Relevance: GS II (Governance & Rights) & GS III (Cyber Security) | Source: The Indian Express

1. What happened?

• The Incident: Recently, a stand-up comedian’s video was suddenly deleted from social media by government orders. The creator was not given any warning or reason.
• The Big Worry: Digital experts are raising an alarm. They feel the government is taking too much control over what we can say, watch, or share on the internet by using the IT Rules, 2021.
• The Problem: The government is changing these internet rules very fast through executive orders, without properly discussing them in the Parliament.

2. The Rulebook: Two Basic Laws

To understand this debate, you just need to know two main sections of the IT Act, 2000:

3. What are the New Changes? 

The government has made some very strict changes to the rules recently:

• Direct Police Action: A new system (Sahyog Portal) allows local police officers and central agencies to directly order social media apps to delete content.
• The 3-Hour Deadline: Social media apps are now forced to delete flagged posts in a massive rush—within just 3 hours!
• No Jokes Allowed: There is no special protection given to comedy, memes, or political satire.
• The Biggest Threat: A new proposal suggests that the government might start censoring individual users who just want to comment on politics. Worse, they want internet companies to save your personal data and chat history forever, which is a massive threat to our privacy.

4. Who is Right?

For your Mains exam, you must show both sides:

• The Government’s View: The government says the internet has become dangerous. We need these strict rules to quickly stop fake news, dangerous AI “Deepfakes,” and cyber-criminals from fooling innocent people.
• The Public/Experts’ View: Experts say that fighting fake news is good, but doing it in “secret” is bad. Right now, a user’s post is deleted, and they are never told why or given a chance to explain themselves. This kills our basic Freedom of Speech.

5. The Solution 

The internet definitely needs rules so it doesn’t become a wild jungle. However, big rules that take away a citizen’s privacy or free speech should be openly debated and passed by the elected leaders in the Parliament, not just issued quietly by a few officers.

UPSC Value Box

With reference to the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 and digital media regulations in India, consider the following statements:

1. Section 69A of the IT Act empowers the Central Government to block public access to any online information in the interest of India’s sovereignty and integrity.
2. Under Section 79 of the IT Act, social media intermediaries enjoy unconditional legal immunity from prosecution for any content posted by their users.
3. The IT Rules, 2021 are formulated and monitored primarily by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) for all social media platforms.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 1 and 2 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Correct Answer: (a)