Reshuffle & digital refresh

Context: The recent reshuffle in the information and technology ministry brings new tasks at hand - Broader digital governance framework, transparency in updating IT Act.

Issues for consideration in the digital sector:

• Accessibility: According to the latest Telecom Regulatory Authority’s report (Dec 2020), the rural penetration rate of 34.69%, with 308.17 million rural internet subscribers, is not even one-third of the urban penetration rate.
  • Around 37,439 villages in India are still not covered by telecom service providers.
  • For e.g. the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan (PMGDISHA) has identified only 4.54 crore target candidates. Out of these, only 2.71 crore candidates had been certified as of March 2021.

• Frequent internet shutdowns: data shows that between 2012 and 2019, state governments have shut down the internet approximately 374 times, causing $2.4 billion in losses.
  • There is widespread non-compliance by state governments with the Supreme Court’s judgement in Anuradha Bhasin v Union of India that required publication of internet shutdown orders.
  • The enforcement body recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority is yet to be formed. On internet shutdowns and net neutrality, there have been little to no policy proposals

• Social Media regulation: There is an absence of any clear legislative power, and the regulations end up hurting the fundamental rights.

• • The regulation also becomes complex due to the involvement of two ministries- The IT Rules are jointly the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Ministry of Electronics and IT.

• • The Ministry of I&B regulates online news portals and video streaming services; however, rather than leading to clear regulatory principles, these have only led to uncertainty and dispute.

• • Today, close to 14 individual constitutional challenges are pending before different high courts.

• Increase in data breaches: The average data breach in India costs Rs 14 crore and the average time to both detect and contain a breach went up to 221 days and 83 days, respectively.

• There have been little to no policy movements to address these lapses, as they have seemingly been put off on the premise of an incoming Data Protection law.

Solutions: Withdraw IT rules.

• Till a broader and more comprehensive digital governance framework is implemented, intermediary liability can be regulated by the pre-existing legislative frameworks refined by the Supreme Court in the case of Shreya Singhal v Union of India.

• The process for updating the Information Technology Act, 2000 must be made public.