Enhanced Obligations Of The Intermediaries: Amendment To The IT Rules

Intermediaries store or transport data on behalf of others and include online marketplaces, search engines, social media platforms, telecom and internet service providers. In 2008, the Information Technology Act ("IT Act") was amended to protect intermediaries from accountability for any information belonging to third parties. Following this, the IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011 ("2011 Rules") were framed under the IT Act to outline the criteria to be met by intermediaries in order to be granted the aforementioned exemption. On February 25, 2021, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ("Rules"), were announced and replaced the 2011 Rules. According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ("MeitY"), the changes were necessary due to widespread worries about the prevalence of child pornography and content depicting sexual violence, the spread of fake news, the abuse of social media, the