|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| LTE | | | Social media poised for more scrutiny, greater checks in 2019 | | | TT Correspondent | | 31 Dec 2018 | | |   the Congress alleged that if the amendments were cleared, there would be a tremendous expansion in the power of the "big brother" government on ordinary citizens, "reminiscent of eerie dictatorships". Some Cyberlaw experts have equated the changes in rules to India's own anti-encryption law.
The proposals require social media firms to deploy technology-based automated tools for proactively identifying, removing or disabling public access to "unlawful information or content".
If approved, these changes will place social media platforms -- even those like WhatsApp which promise users privacy and encryption -- firmly under government lens, forcing them to adopt stricter due-diligence practices.
The amendments -- which come ahead of the general polls in 2019 -- propose that platforms would have to inform users to refrain from hosting, uploading or sharing any content that is blasphemous, obscene, defamatory, hateful or racially, ethnically objectionable, or threatens national security.
When backed by lawful order, these platforms will have to, within 72 hours, provide assistance as asked for by any government agency. The IT ministry has met Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Google, and others to discuss the proposed changes and public feedback has been sought by January 15.
The seemingly-infallible tech behemoths are already being equated with big oil and big tobacco, in Western markets.
The larger question is whether the shifting public perception and recent moves by the government to regulate these habit-forming, new-age platforms would change the very essence of social media, once considered a harbinger of free speech and individual rights. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Other Stories in this Section | | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|