That gaming companies are being treated as intermediaries is a global anomaly. They have typically been treated as publishers. Intermediaries are meant to be mere conduits for interactions between two people and not create the playing field on which two players will compete. As such, this is a land grab by MeitY.
Secondly, these rules are likely to be illegal because the due diligence framework of the IT Act cannot be used to create a regulatory framework for gaming. It’s also unlikely that any gaming company will go to court to challenge this probable illegality. Also, the Digital India Act will probably create the grounds to justify these rules post-facto. This itself is a worrying trend being set by the Indian government—where the rules precede the law.
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