Express News Service NEW DELHI: Days after the Centre notified fresh rules on regulating digital media content in a gazetted notification, legal experts said the rules were 'draconian' and 'undemocratic'. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 will 'change the way the internet will be experienced in India', said the Internet Freedom Foundation, an NGO that conducts advocacy on digital rights and liberties, in a post.
Medianama founder and digital rights activist Nikhil Pahwa said the new rules were undemocratic. On Thursday, the government had termed its new rules as ‘a soft-touch self-regulatory architecture’. "The impact of the guidelines is extremely worrying. The impact of these guidelines is similar to a law itself would have. It looks like the government is using rules to create a law without parliamentary scrutiny," said Pahwa.