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Digital India Act 2023 - IAS Academy in Coimbatore

Mar 27, 2023

Context

  • The Union government is drafting the Digital India Act, 2023, which would replace the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Digital India Act, 2023

  • As per the report, a draft Digital India Bill, 2023, would likely be ready by early July ’23.
  • According to recent announcements, the government is looking to reconsider the “safe harbour” clause which is a key aspect of cyberspace.
  • As per the “safe harbour” clause, social media intermediaries are not responsible for the content posted by third parties on their websites.
  • Such a clause allowed social media platforms to avoid liability for the posts and content made by their users.
  • The safe harbour clause was also reined in the recently notified Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 which mandates social media intermediates to remove posts when ordered to do so by the government.
  • While presenting the potential changes introduced in the Digital India Act, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology noted that social media platforms’ own moderation policies will now be checked by extending constitutional protections for freedom of expression.
  • The Minister further added that while fundamental speech rights cannot be violated by any platform, there must be provision to combat the weaponisation of disinformation.
  • The Digital India Act would further cover other aspects such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), deepfakes, cybercrime, competition issues and data protection.
  • The government is also expected to introduce stringent regulations on privacy-invasive devices such as spy camera glasses and wearable tech through the Digital India Act.
  • The Act would also look to address various new complex issues like catfishing, doxxing, trolling, and phishing that have emerged in the years post the enactment of the IT Act, 2000.
  • A new adjudicatory mechanism or procedure would be introduced for handling criminal and civil offences committed online.