Free, Regulated or Restricted Internet: A Tussle between Central Government and the Online Publishers over Intermediaries

Rights and restrictions form an important part of the working of a democracy. The Freedom of Speech and Expression and Information Technology act envisages a similar relation where they not only guarantee the rights but also imposes restrictions and responsibilities over the content published online through intermediaries by the originator. This interrelation is conjugated by the rules made under the Information Technology Act, 2000 to further evaluate the influx of data over the social media and other intermediary platforms. Therefore, the author has agonized the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 provided by the central government by virtue of powers given under the IT act with respect to the Fundamental rights guaranteed under the constitution of India and with the IT act itself. Therefore, the paper majorly focuses on the issues revolving around the provisions of the IT act and the rules thereunder which concern the applicability of the fundamental and legal rights guaranteed and the legal conflict between them.