Key Points:
- Three of United Nation’s special rapporteurs criticised India’s New IT Rules 2021.
- “We would like to recall that restrictions to freedom of expression must never be invoked as a justification for the muzzling of any advocacy of multiparty democracy, democratic tenets and human rights,” read the letter by the rapporteurs.
- “The rules are designed to empower ordinary users of social media. The victims of abuse on social media platforms shall have a forum for redressal of their grievances,” the Permanent Mission of India to the UN said in a letter as retaliation.
India has set up New IT Rules for all the Social Media platforms and in general in the month of May 2021. A lot of news about the same has been flashing as breaking since its declaration and recently, it was the United Nations that commented on it.
Three of United Nation’s special rapporteurs criticised India’s New IT Rules 2021.
The individuals wrote to the Indian Government on June 11 that the New IT Rules DO NOT CONFORM WITH INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS.
The rapporteurs wrote:
“We would like to recall that restrictions to freedom of expression must never be invoked as a justification for the muzzling of any advocacy of multiparty democracy, democratic tenets and human rights.”
“We worry that intermediaries will over-comply with takedown requests to limit their liability, or will develop digital recognition-based content removal systems or automated tools to restrict content,” they wrote.
They also said that this was a matter of serious concern.
India, on Sunday, retaliated and dismissed the statements of the Special Procedures Branch of the UNHRC regarding the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
“The rules are designed to empower ordinary users of social media. The victims of abuse on social media platforms shall have a forum for redressal of their grievances,” the Permanent Mission of India to the UN said in a letter.
“The concern that the Rules may be misused deliberately to make a large number of complaints so as to overwhelm the grievance redressal mechanisms created by social media platforms is also misplaced, exaggerated, and disingenuous, and shows lack of willingness to address the grievances of the users of these media platforms while using their data to earn revenues,” the Permanent Mission said in a brief information note on the IT rules.
