Safe Harbour Principle And The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines And Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules (2021)

The newly notified Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 (IT Rules 2021)¹ have caused major shockwaves in the digital technology industry across the world and in India ever since they replaced the previous decade-old Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011 (IT Rules 2011). The IT Rules 2021 bring to the forefront several new obligations for social media and digital streaming platforms to follow. It is important to mention here that these new rules are mandatory for social media and digital streaming platforms if they want to claim the "intermediary safe harbour" status - which is basically protection from being held liable for any third-party content that they carry on their platform. The IT Rules 2021 have inarguably brought about a drastic change to the requirements as compared to IT Rules 2011 that had required minimal compliance for claiming safe harbour protection.