A key aspect of cyberspace is safe harbour- a principle that suggests that the social media intermediaries are not responsible for the third party content posted on their platforms, it also covers e-commerce and AI based platforms. With the of the Digital India Act, 2023, the debate around safe harbour has intensified and consequently the Ministry is planning to do away with the Section 79 that gives immunity to social media intermediaries.
The government has been working to make the intermediaries more responsible and rules stricter in order to prohibit illegal or misinformed content online. By introducing amendments to the already existing acts and introducing new provisions in the past two years, for example the Intermediary Guidelines and o handle the Digital Media Ethics Code, 2021 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, the government has been trying to regulate social media intermediaries for the kind of content posted online. Through the IT Rules of 2021, the government had mandated the social media intermediaries to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer, Resident Grievance Officer and Nodal Contact Person. The government has been trying to relook at the provision of safety harbour from a bird's eye view. Given that there are so many intermediaries online such as e-commerce sites and AI-based platforms, the question arises is who should be given the safety harbour? As there are different sections of intermediaries, the centre is planning to come up with different regulations for different intermediaries.
Social media intermediaries have not been able to handle the grievances related to inappropriate content which led the government to form grievance appellate committees. Warnings of safety harbour being taken away were also given to them several times, but none of it made them respond promptly. Removal of the safety net would mean a lot of content related legal challenges for the intermediaries.
The digital landscape majorly comprises the social media intermediaries and curbing content on these and taking away their safety net would mean there would be no intermediary online for users. As per the experts, steps to ensure legitimate accountability of the social media intermediaries are a must and should be fully constituted in the upcoming acts, especially the Digital India Act whose first draft will likely be released in the first week of June, but withdrawing the only support social media intermediaries have against the legal actions and consequences will ultimately mean presence of no social media intermediaries. Therefore, there arises a need for the government to look at it more comprehensively and make amendments keeping in mind all the beneficiaries.
