Chapter 9 of the Draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022 provides a legal framework for the Government to prescribe measures that ensure the 'protection of users'. It deals with the issue of spam calls and "unsolicited" promotional messages. The ministry will accept comments on the draft bill until October 20, 2022. These can be sent to naveen.kumar71@gov.in. Definition of "specified messages" The draft bill defines "specified message" as any message offering, advertising or promoting goods, services, interest in property, business opportunity, employment opportunity or investment opportunity, whether or not: the goods, services, interest, or opportunity are real or fictitious it is lawful to acquire such goods, services, property, interest or take up the opportunity The definition does not distinguish a "specified message" based on if it's promoting a fake or a real product. Hence, the provisions will likely apply to messages by companies promoting genuine products as well as scammers trying to dupe people. Measures for the protection of users Central Government is allowed to prescribe measures for the protection of users from specified messages under this bill. Such measures may be related to: getting prior consent of users for receiving certain messages or class of messages preparation and maintenance of one or more "Do Not Disturb" registers to ensure that users do not receive specified messages without prior consent a mechanism to enable users to report specified messages Duty of users The draft bill states that no user shall furnish any false particulars, suppress any material information or impersonate another…
