The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) proposes to bring changes in the IT rules, to curb misuse of social media and online platforms.

The draft amendments released by MeitYon Monday suggested that social media and online platforms enable tracing of originators of information, when required by government agencies.

However, political parties and some experts have termed the move a violation of the privacy of individuals.

“The instances of misuse of social media by criminals and anti-national elements have brought new challenges to the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA). These include inducement for recruitment of terrorists, circulation of obscene content, spread of disharmony, incitement of violence, public order and fake news,” MeitY said in a statement.

Role of intermediaries

A number of lynching incidents were reported in 2018, mostly alleged to have been trigerred by fake news/rumours circulated through WhatsApp and other social media sites, it said. Traceability of content had been a long-standing demand of the government, but so far, messaging platforms such as WhatsApp have resisted identification of originators of rogue messages, citing user privacy and encryption.

With this is mind, the proposed amendment suggests that an intermediary should enable tracing of the originators of information on its platform, as may be required by authorised government agencies.

“The intermediary (social media platform) shall deploy technology-based automated tools or appropriate mechanisms, with appropriate controls for proactively identifying and removing or disabling public access to unlawful information or content,” the draft amendment said.

Public opinion

IT ministry officials held a meeting last week with senior executives of Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and other companies to discuss the proposed changes in the Information Technology (IT) rules, and the entire debate has now been opened to public for feedback by January 15.

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