MeitY Advisory to Digital Intermediaries

December 27, 2023

GS Paper II Polity

Context: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) recently advised all digital intermediaries to ensure compliance with the existing IT rules.

MeitY’s Advisory to Digital Intermediaries: Comply with IT Rules or Face Legal Consequences

Target of Advisory: The directive specifically targets the growing concerns around misinformation powered by AI – Deepfakes.
- Recently, the Indian Prime Minister warned about the dangers of deepfakes.

To know more about Deepfakes: Refer, Deepfake

Advisory Formation: It is the culmination of the discussions held by the Union Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Electronics & IT and Jal Shakti during Digital India dialogues with intermediaries.
MeitY Advisory: 11 listed user harms
- It mandates intermediaries to communicate their rules, regulations, privacy policy, and user agreement in the user’s preferred language.
- Obligations: Digital Intermediaries must also ensure reasonable efforts to prevent users from hosting, displaying, uploading, modifying, publishing, transmitting, storing, updating, or sharing any information related to the content prohibited by digital intermediaries.
- Aim: This rule ensures platforms identify and promptly remove misinformation, false or misleading content, and material impersonating others, including deepfakes.
Content Prohibited: The advisory mandates that intermediaries should clearly and precisely communicate prohibited content, particularly those specified under Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT Rules to users, including through its terms of service and user agreements.
- Rule 3(1)(b)(v): It explicitly prohibits the dissemination of misinformation.
- The same must be expressly informed to the user during the first registration and as regular reminders.
Penal Provisions: The advisory emphasizes that digital intermediaries must ensure users are informed about penal provisions, including those in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860, the IT Act 2000, etc. in case of Rule 3(1)(b) violations.
- Further, the terms of service and user agreements must highlight that intermediaries are under obligation to report legal violations to the law enforcement agencies.

Associated Terms

Digital Intermediary: It operates in a digital space that allows users or customers to interact and transact digitally.
- They currently include internet service providers, cloud service providers, consumer-facing social media platforms, etc.
- Example- Instagram and Twitter.
Misinformation: It is incorrect or misleading information. It represents a deep threat to the safety and trust of users on the Internet.
Deepfake: It is misinformation powered by Artificial Intelligence. It further amplifies the threat to the safety and trust of our Digital Nagriks.