THE BATTLE FOR ONLINE PRIVACY

National award-winning filmmaker Utpal Borpujari is a confused man. As a former journalist, he understands the importance of free speech in a democracy. At the same time, he acknowledges the need for a regulatory mechanism to weed out misinformation and other objectionable content from social media platforms that have admittedly given an empowering voice to millions of users. As a filmmaker, Borpujari is a strong votary of creative freedom, though he concedes that a sense of ethics and responsibility should guide such liberties.

So, on February 25, when the Centre released the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, for digital and OTT platforms, he did not question the rationale behind the guidelines (ostensibly to provide the ordinary citizen with a grievance redressal system). But a careful reading of the new rules left Borpujari, like many others, worried. “From experience, we know we can’t trust Twitter or Facebook to guard our privacy, but these guidelines do little to help me as an internet user,” he says.

The new IT rules are at the heart of a big battle between the Union government and big tech companies now. Aimed at making the foreign companies comply with Indian laws—which they often evade, abdicating their responsibilities