Centre issues directive on digital guidelines; says new rules not delegated to states

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Wednesday wrote to Chief Secretaries of all States and administrators of all Union Territories (UTs) clarifying that the powers under Part III of IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules. 2021 are administered by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. According to the release, the letter has also said that these powers have not been delegated to the state governments, district magistrates or police commissioners. 

The letter by the Ministry ready, "It has also been requested that this information be brought to the notice of all concerned persons in States and UTs."

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I&B Ministry on new digital media guidelines

Clarifying that the provisions of digital media guidelines which relate to publishers of digital news and current affairs and publishers of online curated content (OTT platforms), the I&B Ministry said that these rules provide for a Code of Ethics to be followed by digital news publishers and publishers of OTT content, which includes five age-based classifications. 

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"Further, the rules require a three-level Grievance Redressal Mechanism consisting of the publisher (Level-1), a self-regulating body constituted by the publishers (Level-II), and an Oversight Mechanism of the Government (Level III), with time-bound grievance disposal mechanism. Finally, the rules require the furnishing of information by the publishers to the Government and periodical disclosure of information regarding grievance redressal in the public domain," the release said.

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The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 under the Information Technology Act, 2000 were notified on February 25, 2021.

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