Consultation on the basics of Digital India Bill on Mar 9: MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar

On March 9, Chandrasekhar will be in an audience consisting of consumers, lawyers, and the tech industry to present the basic framework, architecture and guiding principles for the Digital India Bill. The consultation will be held in Bengaluru, he said.

Chandrasekhar told this paper that the basic principles of the proposed legislation range from, on one hand, emerging technologies, algorithms of social media platforms, artificial intelligence, and user risks; and on the other hand the diversity of the Internet, various types of intermediaries – current, emerging, and how to regulate them.

“The core of the Bill is how do we ensure that the Internet in India is open, free from user harm and criminality, and that there is an institutional mechanism of accountability. These basic principles and the architecture, we will start sharing from the ninth of March,” he added.

It is learnt that instead of releasing the entire draft Bill for consultation, the government will first consult the public on what it believes should be the core facets of the proposed legislation. Once that process is complete, it will then release the final draft of the Bill for consultation.

The Digital India Bill, once finalised, will replace the Information Technology Act, 2000, which is currently India’s core legal framework that regulates entities on the Internet.

In January, The Indian Express had reported that the Digital India Bill is expected to introduce a regulator for the digital space akin to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), introduce penal consequences for violations, prescribe governing provisions for emerging technologies like the metaverse and blockchain, and expected to have provisions for algorithmic accountability of social media platforms.

Under the Bill, the Ministry of Electronics and IT is also considering regulating a wide gamut of online platforms including social media sites, e-commerce entities, fact-checking portals and artificial intelligence (AI)-based platforms under the Digital India Bill, this paper had earlier reported. As such, it could redefine the long-held understanding about what an online intermediary is. Traditionally, these platforms are seen as mere conduits to access services on the Internet, with no control over the content hosted by them.