Govt trying to balance privacy & security

NEW DELHI: The government, which has been working on the draft IT intermediary guidelines since last year, is trying to strike the right balance between user privacy and security, a government official told ET.“This is what is causing the delay in finalising it,” the official said.The Supreme Court ordered the government on Tuesday to curb social media “misuse” but ensure user “privacy”. The apex court asked the government to file an affidavit within three weeks, updating it of the progress in framing the intermediary guidelines.“We don’t want to be excessive, at the same time we want to protect the user’s privacy. But, (we) also don’t want to do injustice to the intermediaries,” the official said, requesting anonymity.The guidelines put greater responsibility on social media companies such as Whatsapp and Facebook to check content on their platforms, apart from giving users better recourse in case of misconduct.“The Supreme Court’s order will certainly fast-track the process of finalising the guidelines,” said the official, adding that the government has received almost 600 pages of comments on the draft intermediary rules.The ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) has received contradictory comments on several clauses under the draft, the official said.The government will carefully evaluate it since a section of the industry is applauding one clause, while another is opposing it fiercely, said the official.“Issues such as traceability, developing automated tools for monitoring content, timelines for removing content and definition of content (that) can’t be hosted by the users on an Internet platform are contentious,” said the official.Under the refreshed guidelines, social media companies must ensure traceability to determine the origin of fake news, set up an India office and a local grievance officer, and must respond to government and court requests for information and takedowns within 72 and 24 hours, respectively. They also seek to ask platforms to develop automated tools to proactively remove unlawful content.71303622 First Released in DecThe draft guidelines are an update of rules that were originally notified in April 2011 under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and deal with technology companies’ responsibility in curbing misuse of social media.The government first released the draft in December, inviting feedback from all stakeholders till February this year. The final draft will be sent for inter-ministerial consultation before being vetted by the law ministry and notified.According to the draft guidelines, content that is “grossly harmful, harassing, blasphemous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, libellous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically objectionable, disparaging, relating or encouraging money laundering or gambling, or otherwise unlawful in any manner whatever…” should not be posted.This definition has been adopted from the 2011 rules. “While some people say that there is no issue with it since it’s part of the earlier rules and has been working fine, others say it’s too ambiguous and want it to be redefined,” the official added.The issue of traceability has been the chief bone of contention between the government and instant messaging platform Whatsapp since last year.There is also difference of opinion between various companies over the issue.The government has been asking the Facebook-owned firm to help in deciphering the origin of messages that cause law and order problems in the country, but WhatsApp has been rejecting that, arguing that the platform provides end-to-end encryption. On the other hand, social media companies like ByteDance-owned TikTok, and homegrown ShareChat, among others, have offered to cooperate with law enforcement agencies.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2neKfui