Definitions under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 have sought to define certain encompassing subject matter with relative relevance to the Information Technology Act, 2000 and other applicable laws.
These rules place reliance on defining a person as that under the Income Tax Act, 1961 wherein a person may include an individual, a Hindu undivided family, a company, a firm, an association of persons or a body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, a local authority, and every artificial juridical person, whether or not such person or body or authority or juridical person was formed or established or incorporated with the object of deriving income, profits or gains. They further clarify that any person below the age of 18 years is a child for their consideration.
A User under these rules may be any person or persons who jointly access or avail any computer resource, system, network, data, data base or software of an intermediary or a publisher for the purpose of hosting, publishing, sharing, transacting, viewing, displaying, downloading or uploading information. An Intermediary has been previously defined under the IT Act, 2000 as a person who on behalf of another person receives, stores or transmits, records or provides any service with respect to that record and includes telecom service providers, network service providers, internet service providers, web-hosting service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online-auction sites, online-market places and cyber cafes.
The account registration of a user with an intermediary or publisher including their profiles, accounts, pages, handles and other similar presences by means of which a user is able to access the services offered by the intermediary or publisher has been said to be the user account.
These rules further define access services as any measure, including technical measure such as closed captioning, subtitles and audio descriptions, through which the accessibility of online curated content may be improved for persons with disabilities and access control mechanism as any measure, including a technical measure, through which access to online curated content may be restricted based on verification of the identity or age of a user. A communication link has been described as a connection between a hypertext or graphical element, and one or more items in the same or different electronic document wherein upon clicking on a hyperlinked item, the user is automatically transferred to the other end of the hyperlink which can be another electronic record or another website or application or graphical element.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India has been held responsible for the purpose(s) of due diligence by intermediaries and grievance redressal mechanism under part II, the, and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India for the purpose(s) of code of ethics and procedure and safeguards in relation to Digital Media under Part III of these rules.
MEDIA & CONTENT
Content under these rules have been said to imply electronic record(s) as defined under the IT Act and can mean data, record or data generated, image or sound stored, received or sent in an electronic form or micro film or computer generated micro fiche. The
Content descriptor has been defined as the issues and concerns which are relevant to the classification of any online curated content, including discrimination, depiction of illegal or harmful substances, imitable behaviour, nudity, language, sex, violence, fear, threat, horror and other such concerns as specified in the Schedule annexed to the rules.
These rules define Digital Media as digitized content that can be transmitted over the internet or computer networks and includes content received, stored, transmitted, edited or processed by an intermediary or a publisher of news and current affairs content or a publisher of online curated content.
Online curated content has been described as any curated catalogue of audio-visual content, other than news and current affairs content, which is owned by, licensed to or contracted to be transmitted by a publisher of online curated content, and made available on demand, including but not limited through subscription, over the internet or computer networks, and includes films, audio visual programmes, documentaries, television programmes, serials, podcasts and other such content.
A publisher has been defined as a publisher of news and current affairs content or a publisher of online curated content.
FOR SOCIAL MEDIA
A social media intermediary can be any intermediary which primarily or solely enables online interaction between two or more users and allows them to create, upload, share, disseminate, modify or access information using its services. A social media intermediary having number of registered users in India above such threshold as notified by the Central Government will be considered as a significant social media intermediary.
FOR NEWS MEDIA
Newspaper(s) find definition in these rules as a periodical of loosely folded sheets usually printed on newsprint and brought out daily or at least once in a week, containing information on current events, public news or comments on public news. A news aggregator is defined as an entity who, performing a significant role in determining the news and current affairs content being made available, makes available to users a computer resource that enable such users to access the news and current affairs content which is aggregated, curated and presented by such entity.
News and current affairs content has been defined as newly received or noteworthy content, including analysis, especially about recent events primarily of socio-political, economic or cultural nature, made available over the internet or computer networks, and any digital media, where the context, substance, purpose, import and meaning of such information is in the nature of news and current affairs content.
A publisher of news and current affairs content has been stated to be an online paper, news portal, news aggregator, news agency and such other entity called by whatever name, which is functionally similar to publishers of news and current affairs content. This shall not however include newspapers, replica e-papers of the newspaper and any individual or user who is not transmitting content in the course of systematic business, professional or as a commercial activity.
FOR OTT / ON DEMAND PLATFORMS
On Demand has been described as a system where a user, subscriber or viewer is enabled to access, at a time chosen by such user, any content in electronic form, which is transmitted over a computer resource and is selected by the user.
A publisher of online curated content under these rules is a publisher who, performing a significant role in determining the online curated content being made available, makes available to users a computer resource that enables such users to access online curated content over the internet or computer networks, and such other entity called by whatever name, which is functionally similar to publishers of online curated content. This however does not include any individual or user who is not transmitting online curated content in the course of systematic business, professional or commercial activity.
GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL
A grievance under the new IT Rules, 2021 can be any complaint, whether regarding any content, any duties of an intermediary or publisher under the Act, or other matters pertaining to the computer resource of an intermediary or publisher. A Grievance Officer will be an officer appointed by the intermediary or the publisher, as the case may be, for the purposes of ensuring compliance with these rules.
Committee under these rules refer to the Inter-Departmental Committee constituted under rule 14 of these rules. Such committee will be constituted by the ministry and shall consist of representatives from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Defence, and such other Ministries and Organisations, including domain experts.
