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News article20 September 20221 min read

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Presents Draft Amendments to the Information Technology Rules 2021

Recently, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of the Government of India published a set of draft amendments to the last Information Technology rules 2021.

The amendments address identified shortcomings, particularly concerning grievance resolution mechanisms and user complaints. Currently, intermediaries do not provide any appellate measures or self-regulatory mechanism. The amendments thus aim to equip users with a proper body to claim their rights clearly and promptly. To this end, the Central Government will establish Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs) to hear user complaints against intermediaries. These committees are to address user complaints within 30 days, notwithstanding the possibility of directly addressing the issue in court.

The draft amendments also intend to further reduce the timelines, particularly for content takedown requests to intermediaries (i.e.,  from 15 days to 72 hours), which would significantly improve the quick enforcement of intellectual property rights online in India.

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Publication date
20 September 2022