All internet firms may not get to dock in safe harbour

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

internet companies — including social media firms — with regard to user-generated content published on their platforms, more “the exception than the norm”. The move could redefine the future trajectory of India’s digital and social media industry.

A draft of the revised IT Act (The Digital India Bill), reviewed by ET, shows that the default exemption to internet intermediaries currently available under Section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act of 2000, is likely to be provided only on a “case-to-case basis” once the new regulations come into force.

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The draft bill, currently being vetted by the law ministry and independent legal experts, is likely to be released for public consultation by the end of October, according to officials in the know.

The government will notify “whether any intermediary or any significant intermediary or any class notified under Section 7 (of the Digital India Bill) shall be eligible to claim exemption from prosecution from any third-party content generated or published on their platform”, a senior government official told ET.


“It (will be) an exception rather than the norm,” the person said. Widely termed as the safe harbour clause, Section 79 was incorporated into the Information Technology Act, 2000 following a high-profile case in 2004, where the chief executive of internet commerce platform Baazi.com was held responsible and thereafter briefly jailed for the sale of a compact disc containing objectionable content by