The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting reiterated obligations under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 for OTT publishers and social media intermediaries. OTT publishers are bound by the non-transmission duty for content prohibited by law for the time being in force. Social media intermediaries are bound by due diligence obligations to use reasonable efforts to prevent unlawful user-generated content from being displayed, uploaded, hosted, stored, transmitted, or published.
What happened
A written reply in the Rajya Sabha stated the compliance duties that the IT Rules, 2021 impose on OTT publishers and social media intermediaries.
Background and earlier position
The IT Rules, 2021 distribute responsibilities by platform role: Part-III for publishers of online curated content and Part-II for intermediaries dealing with user-generated content, including social media intermediaries.
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