The Asia Internet Coalition has accused the Nepali draft IT Bill of vague phrasing in its restrictions, empowering authorities indiscriminately, and of failing to understand the services it seeks to regulate. The submission has also made use of Indian law, including the Supreme Court's striking down of Section 66A, to make its point on provisions of the Bill being prone to abuse by the government. The submission points out flaws in data retention limitations set by the Bill, namely the legal and practical considerations for storing data. The other points in the Bill brought out are the vague phrasing in a number of provisions. These include the registration requirements placed on "social networks", and the penal provisions with respect to "breaking privacy". Provisions on intermediary liability dilute the protection of platforms that do not exercise editorial control over the dissemination of content, and places a burden of determination on such platforms. On registration of social networks and Data retention The Bill seeks to have a registration system for social networks, a class of entities too vague to be grouped together owing to the varied kinds of services available from platform online. The conditions to determine which entities require registration have not been made sufficiently clear. Any legal provision that seeks to regulate the emerging online service industry on the basis of hard and fast categorisations and registration processes, may risk quick obsolescence. A strict registration system should be retained for a situation where certain rights are afforded to the registered…
