The Centre is planning to regulate the deployment of emerging technologies and could categorically prohibit some of these new age technologies where it sees a risk to the user, or a national security risk, The Indian Express has learnt.
“But, whatever the government decides, its reasons for barring any technology will be recorded in writing,” a senior government official said, requesting anonymity since the draft of the Digital India Bill is yet to be finalised, and deliberations are private.
The Digital India Bill, which is the imminent successor to the Information Technology Act, 2000, is a key part of a comprehensive legal framework which encompasses various legislative measures such as the recently-notified Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022, and a policy addressing the governance of non-personal data.
“Some emerging technologies may be prohibited if there is a significant likelihood of harm to users which can not be mitigated, if the technology poses a risk to national security or public order, and if its deployment is likely to discriminate against people on grounds like their sexual orientation or political leanings,” the official said.
While the government is still considering the emerging technologies that it wants to regulate, solutions like blockchain and metaverse are understood to be on its radar.
Some of the parameters the government could use as a yardstick to decide whether or not to prohibit an emerging technology include the principal purpose for which it is being developed, its nature, design and operation, complexity and interconnectedness, and promotion of innovation, research and development, among other things.
The Bill, which is likely to propose the creation of a regulator for the online space called the Digital India Authority, could empower the body to penalise developers of emerging technology if their deployment violates the proposed principles. The regulator, it is understood, may also direct the Central Government to block access to any software or application built by such developers.
To foster innovation, the Central Government may establish a regulatory sandbox to facilitate the development, testing, validation or deployment of any emerging technology or business model before it is made available to the public.
The Bill also plans to regulate the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) models by offering users of social media platforms and other companies the right to be informed of a significant technological decision made by them through automated means.
This means that the next time platforms like Instagram or Facebook decide to deploy a new algorithm-based news feed to their users, they would be required to offer an explanation of the rationale behind the algorithm, along with the criteria and user characteristics processed by their automated decision-making process. Users will also be allowed an option to opt-out if they do not want a platform to impose a major algorithm change on them.
On Govt radar
The motivation is to preempt technologies that could have a “disruptive impact” on users. While the government is still considering the emerging technologies, solutions like blockchain and metaverse could be on its radar.
Under the Bill, the government is also attempting to widen the horizon of a key legal provision that empowers it to issue takedown orders, this paper had earlier reported. The Centre is considering some tweaks to what is the erstwhile Section 69 (A) of the IT Act, including dropping language that prescribes some legal guardrails around blocking orders, and potentially opening up the application of the provision to other conditions.
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The Centre is also considering a plan which could empower it to decide which social media platforms should have legal immunity — commonly known as safe harbour — from user-generated content hosted by them. This means that safe harbour protection will no longer apply to platforms just by virtue of being intermediaries.
Platforms that play a role in transmission, caching, or hosting content while exercising editorial responsibility over it will not have safe harbour. While it is currently unclear whether social media platforms will be offered safe harbour — a key tenet of facilitating online free speech – by default, the change could give the government a whip to control who gets exemptions, and who does not.
The Bill, as reported by The Indian Express earlier, will also focus on user harm and categorising acts like deliberate misinformation as offences
