MeitY officials meet representatives of internet intermediaries to discuss IT rule changes

New Delhi: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) officials on Tuesday met representatives of internet intermediaries and civil society organisations to discuss concerns over the proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules.

The meeting comes amid widespread opposition from digital platforms and industry bodies, who have raised objections to several provisions in the draft amendments, citing potential impacts on online freedoms and compliance burdens.

The Ministry proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, that significantly widen the ambit to include "news and current affairs content" posted by non-publisher users such as influencers and content creators.

IT Secretary S Krishnan told reporters that the feedback received ranged from requests for more time to demands for outright withdrawal of the draft amendments.

Krishnan indicated that the government may extend the April 14 deadline for receiving feedback on proposed IT rules amendments and will consider industry and stakeholder views before finalising any changes.

The draft proposal seeks to bring news and current affairs content posted by private individuals — including YouTubers, Instagram Reels creators, X (Twitter) users, and other influencers with significant followings — under Part III of the rules.

Part III currently governs digital media ethics and enforces a three-tier content oversight mechanism, which previously applied only to professional media organisations such as publishers, online news portals, and news aggregators.

The existing rules explicitly excluded “any individual or user who is not transmitting content in the course of systematic business, professional or commercial activity. The proposed amendment removes this exemption for anyone posting content that qualifies as news or current affairs.

If notified, individual users’ news-related posts on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, or X, who are not registered news publishers, would fall under purview of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).