The Indian government is planning to make clear distinctions between various online intermediaries such as social media platforms, e-commerce sites, fact-checking and AI-based platforms under the upcoming Digital India Bill, government sources told the Indian Express. According to the report, the Centre will bring in separate regulations for each of these categories of online platforms. “There are no pure intermediaries anymore, so the adjudication and our understanding of it has to go beyond intermediary liability. We need to start seeing intermediaries as digital service providers,” the official told the Indian Express stressing on the need to classify internet services for effective regulation. Why is the bill making news? The current provisions of India’s IT Act are not expansive enough to regulate the ‘intermediaries’. Intermediaries are platforms that allow people to access services on the internet. While the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's (MeitY) IT Rules introduced regulations for social media intermediaries, there are no specific regulations for separate services like e-commerce sites and ride-hailing platforms. Moreover, the bill is yet another crucial legislation indicating Centre’s focus on greater regulation of internet-based platforms, which MediaNama had reported, is modelled after the Telecom Bill and Digital Personal Data Protection Bill. What to expect? Classification of online intermediaries as social media, e-commerce, fact-checking and AI platforms New regulator for the digital space similar to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or Securities Exchange Board of India and separate governing provisions to cover evolving technological developments Introduction of new criminal offences specific to…
