Tech Law Forum @ NALSAR

Category: Internet Governance

The Fate of Section 230 vis-a-vis Gonzalez v. Google: A Case of Looming Legal Liability

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[This article is authored by Harshitha Adari and Akarshi Narain, 2nd year students at the NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. It analyses the arguments in Gonzalez v. Google, a case that came before the United States Supreme Court, in the context of the judgment’s consequences on Internet free speech.]

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is the pillar of internet free speech. It provides “interactive computer services” such as video platforms, social media networks, blogs, and other platforms hosting third-party speech- broad immunity from liability for the content posted by users. It states that “no user or provider of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the speaker or publisher of any information provided by another information content provider.” This protection promotes free internet speech and immunizes service providers and users for removing objectionable content. The drafters of this legislation recognize that an internet unfettered by government regulation is a non-negotiable for free speech to thrive online. However, two pending cases before the US Supreme Court, Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh, challenged the scope of this law’s protections.

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IT AMENDMENT RULES 2022: An Analysis of What’s Changed

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[This post is authored by Sohina Pawah, a second-year student at the NALSAR University of Law, who is also an Editor for the TLF]

INTRODUCTION

Back in June 2022, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“MeitY”) had first released the proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“IT Rules 2021”) for public consultation. Recently, the MeitY notified the Amendments to Parts I and II of the IT Rules 2021 by introducing the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2022 (“IT Amendment Rules, 2022”). The IT Amendment Rules 2022 aim at the regulation of social media intermediaries by increasing the burden of their compliance, and ensuring that the safe harbours provided to them are not abused. On the whole, the Rules aim at strengthening the protective framework for the “netizens’ interests” by prioritising their fundamental rights under Articles 14,19, and 21 of the Indian Constitution.

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Traversing the Contours of Safe Harbour: Comparison of India and US (Part II)

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This is the second part of a two-part post authored by Kavya Jha and Ananya Singh, fourth-year law students at RGNUL, Punjab. The first part can be found here.

In light of the ongoing attempts to provide intermediaries with the right degree of protection, this essay seeks to juxtapose the Indian approach to safe harbour protection with the American approach. It argues that both these jurisdictions have taken opposite but extreme approaches: while India has narrowed down the safe harbour protection from what was originally intended by the legislature, the American courts have interpreted the safe harbour provisions so expansively that an imbalance has been created in favour of the intermediaries. The essay, thus, recommends a balanced approach to providing safe harbour protection to intermediaries.

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Traversing the Contours of Safe Harbour: Comparison of India and US (Part I)

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This is the first part of a two-part post authored by Kavya Jha and Ananya Singh, fourth-year law students at RGNUL, Punjab. 

In light of the ongoing attempts to provide intermediaries with the right degree of protection, this essay seeks to juxtapose the Indian approach to safe harbour protection with the American approach. It argues that both these jurisdictions have taken opposite but extreme approaches: while India has narrowed down the safe harbour protection from what was originally intended by the legislature, the American courts have interpreted the safe harbour provisions so expansively that an imbalance has been created in favour of the intermediaries. The essay, thus, recommends a balanced approach to providing safe harbour protection to intermediaries.

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Legal issues with Blockchain in Corporate Governance System of Indian Banks

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[This post has been authored by Harinie. S, a fourth-year law student at Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad]

The recent onset of economic recession highlights the need to overhaul the governance system of the largest player of the economy- the banks. The failure of Lakshmi Vilas Bank and Yes Bank, and the downfall of Dhanalakxmi bank’s management are a result of a bad corporate governance system. The same has been acknowledged by the Reserve Bank of India (‘RBI’).

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Duty of a Data Fiduciary to Report a Breach: Part I

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[This post has been authored by Ms. Vasundhara, Managing Partner, Verum Legal and Mr. Mudit Kaushik, Counsel, Zeus IP. Part Two can be found here]

Data breaches have become an issue for companies in the digital era, with no entity being spared for direct or even indirect involvement in a breach. Recently, Dominos Indiawas subject to a data breach by an unidentified hacker who allegedly took over 20 crore order details from Domino’s India server. What must have been worrisome for Dominos India would have been the fact that they collect information such as their customer’s name, email address, contact details, location and their address.

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Right to Privacy at the Mercy of the Executive: Part II

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[This two-part essay has been authored by Aarya Pachisia, a 4th-year law student at Jindal Global Law School. Part One can be found here.]

Continuing the argument of how the executive seeks to control different actors under the Bill, this article focuses on executive control over the citizens. I advance the argument in two parts. First, I argue that under section 35 of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019  (‘the Bill’), a notification by the executive can exempt any stage agency from obtaining consent to process data of the citizens. There is no oversight mechanism envisaged by the Legislature under the Bill, as recommended by the Committee to validate or invalidate such notifications. Second, I argue that the Bill also considerably dilutes the consent framework under the Bill and drifts away from the concept of allowing the data subject to exercise control over personal data at every stage. 

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Right to Privacy at the Mercy of the Executive: Part I

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[This two-part essay has been authored by Aarya Pachisia, a 4th-year law student at Jindal Global Law School. Part Two can be found here.]

Technology is advancing at lightning speed, making privacy violations inevitable. Today, machine learning software is sophisticated enough to predict one’s sexual orientation, political and religious affiliation merely by processing their likes on Facebook. The Whatsapp Snooping scandal is another instance, where WhatsApp has filed a case in the court of California against the NSO group for hacking targets’ phones through the app. The case brought to light that unchecked power and absence of proper legal mechanism can lead to gross violations of right to privacy.

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Fighting “Unlawful” Content: Moderation and the New Intermediary Guidelines

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[This post has been authored by Sanjana L.B., a 4th year student at Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad.]

Introduction

In January 2021, India had the highest number of Facebook users at 320 million. This was followed by the United States of America (“USA”), with 190 million users. As of February 2021, about 53.1% of the population of Myanmar were active social media users. These numbers are not only indicative of internet penetration, but also of the audience for user-generated content on platforms like Facebook. This article focuses, firstly, on the need for content moderation on social media by looking at harmful precedents of inefficient moderation, and secondly, on the Indian Government’s approach to content moderation through the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“Intermediary Guidelines”) and recent developments surrounding the regulation of social media content in India.

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Metadata by TLF: Issue 20

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Welcome to our fortnightly newsletter, where our reporters Harsh Jain and Harshita Lilani put together handpicked stories from the world of tech law! You can find other issues here, and you can sign up for future editions of the the newsletter here.

Facebook-Australia standoff ends as both parties agree to truce

Facebook has reached an agreement with the Australian Government and will restore news pages in the country days after restricting them. The decision follows negotiations between the tech giant and the Australian Government, which is set to pass a new media law that will require digital platforms to pay for news. The law, if passed, will make digital platforms pay local media outlets and publishers to link their content in news feeds or search results. Under the amendments, the Australian Government will give digital platforms and news publishers two months to mediate and broker commercial deals before subjecting them to mandatory arbitration under the proposed media law. Both Google and Facebook have fought against the media law since last year. Google previously threatened to remove its search service from Australia in response to the proposed law. But the company has since struck commercial deals with local publishers including the Murdoch family-owned media conglomerate News Corp. Facebook, for its part, followed through with a threat to remove news features from Australia.

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