Amendments In IT Rules 2021 In Few Days: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Minister of State for electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Wednesday said that the government will bring amendments to the Information Technology Rules 2021 in the next few days.

The minister, at an event organised by the US-India Business Council (USIBC), said that a series of new legislation will be brought out in the next few months such as a revised bill on data protection, the Digital India Act, and a data governance framework.

“You will see these being rolled out in quick succession over the next 3-4 months. However, they will be subject to intense stakeholder consultation,” said Chandrasekhar.

He further added, “It will be a framework that will make India succeed in the ‘techade’. These new laws will supersede current rules. If there are any contradictions with earlier laws, they will be amended or repealed.”

In the proposed amendment to the IT Rules 2021, government-established grievance appellate committees were proposed because the centre felt that the current grievance redressal mechanism was not working properly. However, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) clarified later that it was also open to the formation of an industry-established self regulatory body.

Recently, the ministry of IT and electronic had issued a notice to Wikipedia following a vitriolic propaganda ran on the profile page of cricketer Arshdeep Singh after India lost the match to Pakistan.

The Wikipedia episode came after Singh was trolled on social media for dropping a catch at a crucial stage of India-Pakistan Asia Cup cricket match in Dubai on September 4. In what appeared to be a replay of the vicious trolling that pacer Mohammad Sami was subjected to by Pakistan-based handles to make it appear that he had been singled out for India’s defeat because of his faith, a number of Twitter handles went into overdrive to insinuate that Arshdeep had been accused of being a Khalistani by Indians who held him singularly responsible for the loss to Pakistan.

The changes are suspected to have been carried out through Pakistan-based IP addresses, and several tweets are also seen to have emerged from the neighbouring country, in what is believed to have been done deliberately to foment trouble in India. This prompted the government to launch a strong response.

As the chatter around the change of Singh's Wikipedia page started to grow thicker, junior IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar took to Twitter to slam the move. "No intermediary operating in India can permit this type of misinformation (a)n(d) deliberate efforts to incitement (a)n(d) user harm - violates our govt’s expectations of safe and trusted internet,” he said.