NEW DELHI: Creating a culture of rules-based accountability among large digital platforms is crucial to ensure that the internet remains open and secure for all users, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajiv Chandrasekhar said on Monday.
He said that India is emerging as a big internet economy with 800 crore Indians, which is expected to reach 120 crore.
According to him, the Internet is driving the digital economy and the laws and regulations surrounding it will be “measured, consultative and futuristic”.
“The Internet for all good things represents the ability to deliver good governance, the last man in a democracy to reach government … to address … develop the good, and address the bad in a way that Be transparent and effective,” he said.
Issuing the FAQs on mediator guidelines, Chandrashekhar said that as cyberspace is evolving, so too is the nature of “good and bad” on cyberspace.
He said the policy formulation of the government is aimed at ensuring that the interests of users are protected through greater accountability of the platform.
“The Internet must always be open … Openness means that it is free not only from state and government influence, but also from major large technological influence and is one of the ways to normalize it between large platforms, Creating a rules-based culture of accountability for its users,” he said.
Responsibility and openness are important qualities of cyberspace, he said, adding that in India, the biggest stakeholders of the Internet are millions of Indians who are using it.
Cyberspace “cannot be, should not be and will not be” a place where laws do not reach, he emphasized.
On the need for messaging platforms to trace originators of messages and privacy concerns where needed, the Minister pointed out that the government’s view on the first originator is that when a criminality is online, there is a need to trace the source of the criminality. a legally valid order backed by it.
“We believe that there are ways even remotely without encryption or decryption that can cause a platform to find out who generated a criminality. That is the first originator,” he elaborated.
He said the government has made its position absolutely clear that cyberspace “cannot be a place where crime takes refuge”.
On whether messaging apps Signal and Telegram are compliant with IT regulations, the minister said the ministry does not work on the list of important social media middlemen or middlemen, and intervenes where complaints are dropped.
“When a user reports back to the IT ministry that they have submitted a complaint with a particular platform and that platform is not responding, there is a place for us to intervene and find out the situation,” he said. .
He said the ministry considers itself to be the custodian of Articles 14, 19, 21 and will ensure that the right to privacy, the right to non-discrimination and the right to freedom of expression are protected.
On recent whistleblower allegations that Facebook’s system was promoting hate speech and misinformation, the minister said he has spoken before about the need for algorithmic accountability.
“Whether it finds a place in regulations or new digital laws… but these are areas that we have to discuss publicly, discuss among industry, develop road maps among users… also violates the citizen’s Article 14, 19, 21. Still a violation and so our main job is to protect the right to freedom of expression, right to privacy and right to non-discrimination, as government does offline ,” They said.
In a case where the algorithm or any conduct of an intermediary gets in the way of users’ rights, he said it is a matter for the government or the law to deal with “in the future if not today”.
Stating that he was against bringing litigation into the relationship between policy makers and middlemen unless “absolutely necessary”, the minister said the government was committed to expanding the internet space.
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