New Amendments To India's Guidelines For Intermediaries: An Update

1. Introduction

In February 2021, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ("MeitY") released the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ("Guidelines"), issued under the Information Technology Act, 2000 ("IT Act"). Under this framework, an intermediary – a term that includes social media companies, internet service providers, cloud service providers, telecom service providers, and e-commerce platforms – must comply with the Guidelines' prescriptions to avail safe harbour provisions under the IT Act.

On June 6, 2022, MeitY released a press note ("Press Note") that sought public feedback on its proposal to amend the Guidelines to provide additional avenues for grievance redressal and to protect Indian citizens' constitutional rights from infringement by big-tech platforms by putting in place new accountability standards for significant social media intermediaries.