By Mitaksh Jain, Sarvesh Mathi, Nishant Kauntia, and Anushka Jain India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) attempted to clear the air on its controversial Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021, by releasing a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) on November 1. MeitY is expected to release another document on the Standard Operating Procedures for the Rules, Minister of State (MoS) for IT Rajeev Chandrashekhar said at a press conference on the same day. Since it took effect on May 26, the IT Rules have faced pushback and court challenges as it stands to fundamentally alter the digital regulation landscape in India. While the FAQ document goes through various questions on the applicability, due diligence provisions, penalties, etc. of the IT Rules related to social media intermediaries; here's a roundup of what was not clarified by MeitY. What the IT Rules FAQs failed to clarify Inclusion of juridical persons: The IT Rules define a user as any person who accesses or avails computer resource of an intermediary or a publisher for the purpose of hosting, publishing, sharing, transacting, viewing, displaying, downloading or uploading information and includes other persons jointly participating in using such computer resource and addressee and originator; What hasn't been clarified: The FAQs do not go into the definition of a user and do not distinguish between natural and juridical persons. A juridical person is a non-human legal entity that is not a single natural person but an organization recognized by law as a legal person such as a corporation,…
