News agency Press Trust of India on Wednesday challenged the Centre’s Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Me...
News agency Press Trust of India on Wednesday challenged the Centre’s Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 in the Delhi High Court, The Hindu reported. The new rules were introduced in February and came to effect in May.
The new rules constitute a set of sweeping regulations framed to regulate social media companies, streaming and digital news content, virtually bringing them, for the first time, under the ambit of government supervision.
PTI argued before the court that the rules would “usher in an era of surveillance and fear, thereby resulting in self-censorship, which results in abridgment/ violation of Fundamental Rights as enshrined under Part III of the Constitution of India”, according to the newspaper.
The news agency described the new rules as “a weapon for the Executive or the State to enter and directly control the content of online digital news portal” and said that their implementation must be stayed, according to Forbes.
PTI also submitted that the Centre’s distinction between digital and print media was a violation of Article 14 (equality before law) of the Constitution of India, The Times of India reported.
“They introduce digital portals with ‘news and current affairs content’ as a specific and targeted class to be subject to regulation by a...
