Draft IT Rules Feedback: Modi Govt Must Abandon Censorship Framework, Lock, Stock and Barrel |
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Earlier this year, the Narendra Modi government, via the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), notified some draft amendments to existing IT Rules, proposing some very significant changes to the already restrictive atmosphere in which journalists function in India. It proposes to bring under its ambit all commentators and individuals, not just journalistic organisations, and wants to act on social media posts, not just websites. It proposes that ‘advisories’ be treated as directions. It seeks to increase the duration for which intermediaries must store data. It wants to empower the inter-departmental committee (IDC), solely consisting of government bureaucrats, to pick up any matter, suo-motu, instead of just acting on complaints it receives, as previously.
Feedback was invited from news organisations, associations and the general public by May 7, 2026.
The Wire finds the draft changes even more restrictive than before, but in principle is opposed to........