Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 And 2023 Amendment: Regulation of Media and It’s Ethico-Legal Challenges

‘Technology is a rapidly growing part of today’s society. It has not only changed the community’s way of living but also the very existence’. As time progresses, humans continually develop new technologies to simplify their lives. In India, the Information Technology Act of 2000 stands as the sole legislation addressing technology-related issues comprehensively. Other laws, such as the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act, and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, among others, touch upon certain aspects related to technology within their respective scopes, but they do not provide a comprehensive framework for addressing technology-related matters. Now, by seeing the development of social media and all new technology, and raising problems, cyber security issues, the Indian government is trying to regulate this field and for that matter, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“MEITY”) and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (“MIB”) on 25.02.2021, notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The IT rules,2021 mandate the retention of user data by intermediaries for use by government agencies and identification of 1st originator of the information on messaging platforms. And it also empowers the government to identify the fake news on the internet in respect of the government and block it without giving proper opportunity of being heard. These both rules are important to regulate the unregulated sector that is digital media. Because, the growth of digital media has been accompanied by a growing concern around issues such as fake news, hate speech, and privacy breaches, soft pornographic content, content that is likely to incite violence. By adhering to this code of ethics, digital media platforms will help to ensure that they are promoting responsible and ethical behavior and that they are not contributing to the spread of harmful content. But on the other hand the issue is related to the right to privacy, free speech. The rules are clearly infringing fundamental rights under the name of responsibility and ethics. The researcher has undertaken the topic to study and to evaluate the provisions made by the government to regulate the digital media along with their ethico-legal challenges.