Page 33 - It Rules News Today

The Centre’s recent attempts to provide clarification over the notification fail to allay concerns raised by civil society, tech companies and internet users.

One of the most unsettling revelations in the cache of internal documents leaked by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen has been just how little we know about Facebook, and consequently how unprepared our political culture is to do anything about it, whatever it is.

The government on Monday said the new IT rules are consistent with the right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the Constitution, and do not place additional obligations on users.

More than 2.2 million Indian accounts were banned by WhatsApp while 560 grievance reports were received by the messaging platform in September, according to its compliance report.

Social media giant Meta on Monday said over 26.9 million content pieces were "actioned" on Facebook across 10 violation categories proactively in India during the month of September. Its photo sharing platform Instagram took action against over 3.2 million pieces across nine categories during the same period proactively, as per data shared in a compliance report.

The FAQs seek to address queries that internet and social media users may have about scope of the new rules, major changes it brings over past provisions, among others.

The requirement for messaging platforms to trace the originator of a message has not been brought in with an intention to break or weaken encryption, and companies are free to come up with alternative technological solutions to implement this rule, as per FAQs released by the government on Monday. The new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics

The government defending the legal validity of its new IT rules that mandate WhatsApp and Facebook to ‘trace’ the first originator of information on request told the Delhi High Court on Friday that the social media giant monetise user data and can’t claim privacy protection on their behalf.

The Indian government has defended in the Delhi High Court the legal validity of its new IT rule requiring messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, to trace the first originator of the information, saying that the law empowers it to expect such entities to create safe cyberspace and counter illegal content either themselves or by assisting the law enforcement agencies.

The petitioner says that the Rules are not only ambiguous but also "seek to undermine end to end encryption which is a subset of the fundamental right to privacy."