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Section 79 of IT Act
Why is it in news?
- The proposed amendments to rules under Section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act
- It make it mandatory for online platforms to “proactively” deploy technology, which would enable a ferreting of content seen as “unlawful”.
- They also require end-to-end encryption to be broken so that the origin of messages can be traced.
- In the draft of The Information Technology [Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018, Rule 3(9) requires “intermediaries”, or online platforms :
- Deploy technology based automated tools or appropriate mechanisms, with appropriate controls, for proactively identifying or removing or disabling access to unlawful information or content.
- The insertion of a new Rule 3(4) activates a pro-active monthly notification across intermediaries to warn users repeatedly.
- Rule 3(5), which will introduce a “traceability requirement”, will in effect require a platform to break end-to-end encryption and introduce systems for retaining data and information specific to each bit of data, including WhatsApp messages.
- The five-page draft rules were discussed Friday by an official of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) with others from the Cyber Law Division, and representatives of Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Amazon, Yahoo, Twitter, ShareChat, SEBI and The Internet Service Providers Association of India.
What are implications?
- The landmark ruling on March 24, 2015, struck down Section 66A of the IT Act,which allowed the arrest of those allegedly posting offensive content online.
- The proposed changes would mean that social media platforms with more than “50 lakh users” would be liable to help the government “within 72 hours” of a query.
- They would be expected to appoint a Nodal person of Contact for 24X7 coordination with law enforcement agencies and officers to ensure compliance.
- The draft amendments envisage that online platforms will keep a record of “unlawful activity” for a period of “180 days”, double the 90 days in the older version.
Source
The Hindu