EC demand for more power in IT law panned by industry, civil society

Industry and civil society organisations have opposed the Election Commission of India’s (EC’s) demand for including a clause in the proposed changes to the country’s technology laws that deal with taking down content hosted on social media, messaging services and other online platforms.

An ongoing consultation being carried out by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has proposed changes to Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, seeking to regulate a set of companies that qualify as intermediaries, and covers the likes of Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Google.

The proposed changes include asking companies to notify users about their privacy policies at least once every month, assisting a government agency in an appropriate manner within 72 hours of communication and take down or disable access to the content specified by the draft law.