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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Sites' defiance of IT Act sparked face-off

Sites' defiance of IT Act sparked face-off

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published Published on Dec 7, 2011   modified Modified on Dec 7, 2011
-The Times of India
 
Existing Indian laws, as defined by the IT Act, is viewed by experts and most website organizations as "reasonable". The government has already a set of detailed laws to deal with user generated content on websites - but the refusal of some foreign social networking sites to comply with notices sent under these laws has led to the current face-off. 

Under the IT Act, an intermediary (a website or company hosting the content) is duty-bound to act on a complaint relating to content (including user generated content) within 36 hours of receiving a complaint. However, official sources said some of the foreign sites have been taking the position that they will not remove the allegedly offensive content unless they receive a court order - as any content removal by them has to be in line with their global policy and US laws. 

This apparently has been arising out of a difference of opinion on whether some of the content complained about violates their terms of service or not - with their stand being that the alleged violation of the law may not be clear on the face of the complaint or the instance of content itself. 

The current IT Act, which was modified after the Baazi.com incident, is as an industry-friendly law, under which the intermediary (website) has a safe harbour provision so that the onus of user generated content falls on the person uploading this content, and not on the website unless it edits or in any way alters this user generated content. 

However, once it is notified of a complaint, the website is duty-bound to take action within 36 hours of receiving the complaint. Herein, the IT Act (Rules 3 & 4 of the Intermediary rules under Section 79) also specifically empowers the website to regulate, disable and remove the content - if the person who has hosted it is not willing to remove it himself. The stricter clause relates to Section 69A, under which the government can, on its own, disable content by blocking the relevant web page on grounds of a specified five areas relating to national security, sovereignty, defence, public order, etc. 

Failure to do so can result in imprisonment up to seven years. However, the notices served by the IT ministry to the social networking sites had not fallen under these provisos


The Times of India, 7 December, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/internet/Legal-experts-caution-against-censorship/articleshow/11012393.cms


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