CRITICAL THINKING AND WRITING

ASSIGNMENT
Submitted to – Prof. Noopur Jha
Submitted by – Madhura Khapre (500090552)
OTT platforms enjoyed complete freedom until the Government of India created laws to
regulate it - Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics
Code) Rules 2021 (Rules).
Examine the new policy and critically analyse the following aspects:
Ques.01 What was the pressing need to enact the policy? Use examples to elucidate your point.
(150 words)
Ques.02 Do you think there is any difference now compared to earlier? Use examples to
elucidate your point. (150 words)

ANSWER 01.
2021 regulations are a combination of the draught Intermediaries Rules, 2018 and the OTT
Regulation and Code of Ethics for Digital Media, and are based on section 87 of the
Information Technology Act, 2000. According to the government, these guidelines will
"empower regular users of social media," and their passage was prompted by broad worries
about growing instances of abuse of social media and digital platforms.
Examples:
From May 26 to June 25, Twitter received 94 complaints and took action against 133 URLs,
according to its first monthly compliance report, titled 'India Transparency Report: User
Grievances and Proactive Monitoring July 2021.'
Following user complaints, Google removed 71,132 pieces of information in May and 83,613
pieces of content in June. Automated detection also resulted in the removal of 6,34,357 pieces
of content in May and 5,26,866 in June.
ANSWER 02.
These new guidelines appeared to reduce responsibility by narrowing the definition of illegal
content containing sexual abuse, child sexual abuse, or duplication of previously removed
content. And IT rules aid in the elimination of issues that many individuals confront, such as
scams, defamation, and so on. Abusers and offenders lived freely among us, benefiting from
the same intermediaries. As a result, government can easily monitor and capture them by
encrypting their personal information.
It means that the government will be aware of any offensive content that is posted or streamed.
They may be penalised if they provide harmful content that affects a large number of
individuals in this situation. In the event of noncompliance, the intermediary's safe harbour
from user content will be revoked, making the intermediary vulnerable to legal action.
Prosecution under the Information Technology Act or the Indian penal code is a possibility.