Digital India Bill set to add myriad online offence laws under ‘user harm’
Digital India Bill is likely to define and encode in law various online offences such as cryptojacking, astroturfing, dogpiling or cyber-mob attacks, dogwhistling, swatting, gaslighting and catfishing, people in know of the development told ET.
These offences are likely to be included under the broad category of user harm, and it may also define the penal provisions associated with them, one of the persons said.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessISB Product ManagementVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Digital Marketing and AnalyticsVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Digital TransformationVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Applied Business AnalyticsVisitThe bill, currently in the final stages of being drafted, is also likely to moot the establishment of a Digital India Authority and a National Data Management Office under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the people cited above said. The new bill will replace the 23-year-old Information Technology Act of 2000.
In the new bill, the IT ministry is also likely to define the contours of misinformation and the various ways it is propagated. The publication and transmission of “realistic but fake information in digital form created using a digital system” may also be barred under the new Act, another person said.
ET reported on Tuesday that thedraft of the Digital India Bill is ready and will be released for consultation soon. A top official had said that the bill is likely to be tabled in Parliament during the later part of the winter session.
The exemptions given to social media and other intermediaries under Section 79 of the IT Act may also be done away with.
The government
