Tech firms likely to oppose social media obligations in Bill

As tech firms are set to submit their feedback on the draft Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, they will likely ask the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to remove obligations on social media intermediaries to enforce new regulations on content creators as per the new laws. Sources close to the industry told businessline that the tech and broadcasting associations are expecting to furnish their comments to the ministry by the end of August, as part of which, tech companies want the ministry to go back to its publicly available November draft where Ministry had first disclosed its intent to only directly regulate digital news and OTT content.

The latest draft of the bill is far different from the version publicly shared in November 2023. In this version the ministry has expanded its remit beyond OTT companies and digital news platforms to include social media accounts and online content creators. Establishing a new term, “digital news broadcasters,” in sweeping terms, the ministry seeks to bring individual content creators on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram and X under broadcasting regulation going forward.

Sources told businessline that this change from the November draft will open a slew of onerous obligations on the platforms used by these creators to broadcast or disseminate their content. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting already has the power to ask social media intermediaries like X, Meta and Google to take down certain pieces of content under Section 69A of the IT Act – however as per the latest draft of the broadcasting bill intermediaries might also be asked to furnish information on these creators to the ministry or enforce the new obligations for content creators on the behalf of the ministry.

“Once the regulation goes beyond the principles already established by the IT Act, that becomes a point of disagreement,” sources said. “For example if you seek user information from intermediaries that becomes a point of challenge,” they said.

Tech companies also worry that individual obligations on content creators will also have a detrimental impact on the creator economy at large; they are likely to urge the ministry to regulate a category of content in line with the principles already established under the IT Act. “If you are thinking of establishing new principles, this needs to be thought through in far more detail with far more nuance than what is being considered currently.” The Hindu BusinessLine