india is enforcing new rules that affect
popular online platforms such as
netflix and amazon and social media
companies like facebook and twitter
the rules allow for greater government
oversight of content on these platforms
and make them liable for any content
deemed harmful
but critics argue these will have a
chilling impact
on a constitutional guarantee of freedom
of expression
and also privacy welcome to
the despot on akash banerjee is one of
india's most popular youtubers
and a leading voice when it comes to
political satire
in the online space he is thriving as a
content creator for a young digital
audience
he started his youtube channel called or
the patriot
to talk about social and political
issues over the years
he has built up a team and a strong
presence on all social media platforms
says the digital landscape has given
independent voices
like his own a free space to express
themselves on a wide range of issues
but now he is alarmed
the indian government recently announced
a new set of information technology
rules
it can now more strictly regulate social
media content
digital news and streaming giants such
as netflix
these platforms are expected to regulate
themselves more
and also set up a system to address
complaints about their content
the government says it wants to prevent
what it calls the misuse of these
platforms
i completely agree that news can be
misused it could create two law and
order problems
and there should be a set of guidelines
for people who are doing news on social
media completely understand that
but why were the wordings left so
convoluted
why is it that it has been left so
open-ended that anybody
who is a commentator who makes a video
on published information
also is liable to these rules and
regulations so it is about controlling
the narrative of what people are
talking about nikhil power a digital
rights activist and news editor
shares these concerns he says existing
laws already apply
to the digital space and that the
government is just trying to crack down
on content
it doesn't like the most important
aspect of these regulations is the
imposition
of a particular section in the indian
information technology act
which allows the government of india to
issue orders to censor content
so they can block certain content for
news and current affairs entities
which they did not have the power to do
before these rules came about
but there are others who have welcomed
these rules
venture capitalist mohandas pai says
these regulations are the need of the
hour to break
what he calls the tyranny of digital
giants
and to protect users if you look at
social media today
there are very powerful digital
monopolies if you look at detailed news
media
many of them have a ideological strand
they publish
defamatory articles they publish fake
narratives etc
and where are the traditional media are
subjective government controller rules
digital media are not
banerjee believes these rules give the
government disproportionate powers
and that now the digital space for
creators like him
is shrinking even when it comes to
content
like satire satire is all about putting
the facts
maybe rubbing people a little the wrong
way
but unfortunately in india sarcasm and
satire is taken personally
so either we see ourselves drumming down
our content
or we see ourselves fighting cases in
courts
or we see ourselves spending some time
in jail
but that's where we are headed banerjee
says he will not stop making his show
but he knows that he could one day be in
the line of fire for his content take
care
goodbye for more on this i'm joined from
delhi by tanmay saying
he's a lawyer for the non-profit
internet freedom foundation that
advocates
online freedom in india fanmai the
government says
that these new laws are required to
fight the spread of fake news for
example or revenge pornography
on the internet i mean that sounds like
a reasonable argument doesn't it
first of all thank you for having me and
you're right that is a reasonable
argument the state is objective
uh to fight fake news and revenge
pornography and all of these things
um that's absolutely perfectly fair and
that's reasonable and we agree with the
intentions here but we're concerned that
the rules go
far beyond that and uh they also
end up regulating entities that don't
have um a lot to do with this for
example otd platforms
um which are not necessarily uh very
closely connected with the rise of fake
news or revenge pornography like netflix
or prime
we'll speak about that in a minute but
then i'd like to focus on the first part
of uh the companies where this does
apply for example social media companies
now india
is a huge market for social media giants
such as facebook and twitter for example
how do these new rules impact social
media users of say
facebook in india
right so these rules they give the
government a much greater level of
control over
social media intermediaries like
facebook instagram even whatsapp
than the government exercised before um
they they give the government wide
powers for issuing takedown orders
um even more than was available with the
government before
and in the event of um these
intermediaries not complying with the
government's orders
there could be a range of punishments um
including the intermediaries such as
whatsapp
sorry facebook or twitter could be
liable themselves
for the content that's posted on these
websites now that's a very worrying
development
uh because we expect and we we're
concerned that this will cause
um a chilling effect on fundamental
rights to speech
and expression and the access to
information to the citizens of india
but shouldn't uh these social media
companies be responsible somebody has to
be held accountable
for any harmful content that does come
onto these platforms shouldn't they
so i absolutely agree with you then um i
think that absolutely
it is necessary to combat um fake news
and a lot of things
but um i think that their balance needs
to be struck
between uh taking down illegitimate um
forms of expression and protecting
legitimate
forms of expression uh and speech um and
we're concerned that these rules do not
presently in in their current form
strike that balance
um appropriately do you have similar
concerns for the
ott platforms essentially the so-called
over-the-top platforms
platforms that offer entertainment such
as amazon netflix
or online news portals for example
yes absolutely um we're going to put
aside arguments relating to the
constitutionality
of these rules and the manner in which
these rules were
passed um by the government um
and we will focus for the moment just on
the content of the rules themselves
um in the in the second half of the
rules
they discussed the regulations um
relating to ott platforms and digital
news platforms
what these rules have done essentially
is that they've created a three-tier
oversight mechanism over the content
that is posted on ott platforms and on
digital news media platforms
um where the first year is these
platforms themselves will have a
grievance redressal mechanism
and in the second year while it is
framed as a self-regulatory mechanism
where where these entities will get
together and they will form a
self-regulatory body from amongst
themselves
the government exercises a great amount
of control over the second year
because the government is retains final
approval over the appointments that are
in this self-regulatory body
and in the third year it's the
government itself the third year is an
oversight mechanism committee
which comprises of officers of various
ministries of the central government
and is headed by the secretary of the
ministry of information and broadcasting
now what this 3d mechanism that i've
just discussed does
is that it retains final um approval and
final say
over what sort of content can be or
cannot be uh hosted by otd platforms
such as netflix and prime
or digital news media websites um which
which we think is is very dangerous then
i think we leave it there for the time
being but thank you so much
for joining us from delhi
thanks very much thank you for having me