New Delhi: The day the new 2021 IT rules for digital media platforms came into force, the Congress party slammed the Central government alleging it of imposing a dictatorial regime and saying that it was suffering from "big daddy syndrome".
Congress senior spokesperson and MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi alleged that the new intermediary rules issued by the Modi government are "dire, drastic and draconian" in nature.
The new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 were released in February, giving social media platforms three months to imply.
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Under the new rules, the social media companies will have to appoint a resident grievance officer as part of a larger grievance redressal mechanism. Along with this, there would be active monitoring of content on the platform, monthly compliance reports for Indian users, self-regulation mechanisms and also an oversight mechanism created by the Ministry of Information and Technology.
Calling it a 'North Korean approach' to free speech, Singhvi slammed the Center, by saying, "It is yet another attempt by the Modi government to capture and subordinate every pillar and agency of freedom of thought and expression. Dictatorial regimes, including the North Korean one, would blush at the brazenness with which the Modi government has done so. The Modi-led BJP government’s pathshala should be the new go-to place for all dictators to hone their skills in controlling free speech and thought."
He claimed that when these Intermediary Rules were published their highly objectionable approach was reflected in Rule 4, which obliges all social media platforms to identify the first originator of the information if so directed by the government under Rule 4(2). This introduces the requirement of traceability which would break end-to-end encryption.
He also quoted clause 3 (d), under which all platforms have to remove any content deemed objectionable by the application, not by any court, but by the ministry of such broad thresholds as quoted above.
"For the last seven years, the definition of the ruling party and government of such broad words includes the mere registration of sedition offences, which in turn includes, in the new Orwellian definition of the Modi government, all criticisms of the PM or the HM, criticism of COVID-19 management, any questioning of authority, all attempts to show the truth to power and so on. We can all imagine how these rules will be misused every day to terrorize social media," Singhvi alleged.
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He stated that any infraction of the Rules would, under Rule 7, take away the protection given by the parent act under Section 79, which exempts the intermediary social media platforms from direct punishment and consequently, any mischievous application of Rule 4 (2) would directly make the social media platform liable for third party content over which they have no control.
"The problem lies in Modiji’s New India, where every dissatisfaction is sedition and every dissent is a disturbance. In the hands of such an Orwellian world and such a dictatorial ambience, Appendix II rules permitting draconian and adverse consequences are only meant to terrorize, strangulate and stifle free thought and expression in the social media arena which the BJP and the Modi government now sees as a threat to itself," said the Congress leader.
Accusing the BJP Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for attacking the free speech and voices of dissent and free thoughts, Singhvi also mentioned several incidents as examples, including the legal action initiated against youth helping patients with oxygen in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi Police registering 17 FIRs and arrested 15 people for posters critical of PM Modi, arrest of more than 50 journalists working in rural areas for their COVID-19 reportage.
"Enough is enough. We should all speak in one voice against such invasions of our freedoms and autonomy," he asserted.
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