On June 06, 2022, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“MEITY”) proposed amendments to Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021” (hereinafter, “IT Rules, 2021”) and invited comments on the draft. In our comments on the “Proposed draft amendment to the IT Rules, 2021” (hereinafter, “Draft Amendment”) we reiterated our demand to recall the IT Rules, 2021 and also this Draft Amendment. We highlighted how the draft amendments will deepen an injury to the digital rights of every Indian social media user. For instance they propose the establishment of a government censorship body for social media (the, "Grievance Appellate Committee) that will make bureaucrats arbiters of our online free speech!
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://internetfreedom.in/indian-code-of-conduct-is-not-a-solution-for-de-platforming/