The Indian government is currently in the process of formulating the groundwork to replace the obsolete Information Technology Act of 2000 with the new Digital India Act. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, conducted the first-ever public consultation on the proposed regulations. The draft of the Digital India Act is expected to be released in April, and will undergo two additional rounds of discussions with stakeholders before being placed in Parliament for final approval. The public consultation period for the draft is estimated to last around 45-60 days.
During a summit in Bengaluru, Chandrasekhar presented a detailed overview of the challenges that the existing two-decade-old laws have failed to address, despite the dramatic evolution of the internet ecosystem in the country. To provide perspective, he noted that India had only 5.5 million internet users in 2000, while the current number has grown to 850 million.
Chandrasekhar said, “At a time when technology is disrupting so rapidly. There is AI, AI compute, and blockchain, there are all types of big disruptive changes underway. That is a time that this legislation has been brought. So, this legislation has to be future-ready and it has to be future-proof.”
Over the past two decades, the internet has transformed to include a variety of intermediaries such as ecommerce platforms, digital media outlets, social networking sites, gaming platforms, and more. While cybercrime existed even back then, internet users today face a wider range of security challenges, including cyber stalking, phishing, trolling, and other forms of harassment. In his presentation, the Minister also highlighted the proliferation of hate speech, disinformation, and fake news as pressing concerns. The presentation called for the development of a new law that can be updated as needed and aligns with the tenets of Digital India, with a focus on areas such as an open internet, online safety and trust, accountability and quality of service, adjudicatory mechanism, and new technologies.
Regarding online safety and trust, the presentation emphasized the need to regulate addictive technologies, implement age-gating to protect minors’ data, ensure the safety and privacy of children on social networking platforms, gaming, and betting apps, and require mandatory “do not track” features to prevent children from being targeted for ad tracking. The presentation also advocated for digital user rights such as the right to be forgotten and the right to secure electronic means, in addition to regulating the discretionary moderation of fake news by social media platforms.
The presentation called for separate rules for each category of intermediaries, including ecommerce, digital media, search engines, gaming, and AI. It also underscored the importance of establishing a specialized and dedicated adjudicatory mechanism for online civil and criminal offenses. This mechanism should be easily accessible, provide timely remedies to citizens, resolve cyber disputes, develop a unified cyber jurisprudence, and enforce the rule of law online in accordance with the forthcoming Digital India Act.
