Govt wants to make internet safe, trusted: MoS Chandrasekhar after IT rules amendment
Oct 29, 2022
New Delhi [India], October 29 : Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology on Saturday said the main objective behind amending the Information Technology rules was to make sure the internet is open, safe, and accountable for all digital users.
"The main objective of what we are doing on the internet is to make sure the internet is open, it is safe, accountable, and trusted for our 120 crore digital citizens," Chandrasekhar told ANI.
"We have made sure based on the learnings between May 2021 when the last rules were notified and consultations that we held...We have learned a lot of the gaps that existed in the previous rules and these new rules address those gaps,".
He said the intermediate platforms should not be misused by those who are peddling falsehood.
For the record, the government on Friday notified amended Information Technology rules under which appellate panels will be set up for addressing grievances of users against social media platforms.
According to the new rules, government-appointed appellate committees will be set up in three months to resolve social media users' grievances.
The notification said each grievance appellate committee shall consist of a chairperson and two whole-time members appointed by the Centre, of which one shall be a member ex-officio and two shall be independent members.
According to the new rules, any person aggrieved by a decision of the grievance officer may prefer an appeal to the grievance appellate committee within a period of thirty days from the date of receipt of communication from the grievance officer.
"The Committee shall deal with such appeal expeditiously and shall make an endeavour to resolve the appeal finally within 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of the appeal," the notification said.
"The Grievance Appellate Committee shall adopt an online dispute resolution mechanism wherein the entire appeal process, from filing of appeal to the decision thereof, shall be conducted through digital mode," it added.
The notification has come at a time when Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk has completed his takeover of the micro-blogging site Twitter.
