Internet open, but big tech needs to be accountable to users: IT MoS

The government believes in a free and open Internet, but big technology platforms need to be accountable to the large number of users they host, said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Thursday.

"The internet should be a safe and trusted cyberspace for a woman, or child or elderly or any, any Indian user's use. The Internet must have as its core, along with openness, safety and trust, accountability of these large platforms to the users. Our internet IT intermediary rules, policymaking, legislative architecture today and going forward will be evolving," he said at the curtain raiser event for India Internet Governance Forum.

"On the anonymization and anonymous use of social media, nothing in our policy or IT rules prohibits that. But we do insist, and if the intermediary wants to have safe harbor under Section 79 and be absolved of the responsibility, then they must have the responsibility of finding the first originator of criminal activity (on their platform)," Chandrasekhar said, responding to a question on whether the government was considering penalising anonymous offensive comments. 

The event, a joint initiative of the MeitY, National Internet Exchange of India and Multistakeholder Group, was a precursor to the institution of India Internet Governance Forum (IIGF) formed in conformance to IGF-. Paragraph 72 of the Tunis Agenda of the UN-based Internet Governance Forum (IGF). 

"India has one of the largest Internet populations and possesses the advantage of demographic dividend. The intersection of policy framework, the emergence of cutting-edge technologies and initiatives by private players present an exciting time for the evolution of the digital economy. The India Internet Governance Forum will be a step ahead in ensuring inclusive participation of all stakeholders in harnessing the power of the Internet for economic growth," said Anil Kumar Jain, Chair, IIGF. 

Ajay Data, Chairman of the Universal Acceptance Steering Group, said, “In India we have 19,000 dialects, 121 languages and 22 official languages. Indian citizens should have a domain name of their choice. Under universal acceptance, all domain names must be accepted. Only 11 per cent email servers support Hindi. We should be able to consume content in the language of our choice. This is an apt time for IIGF to be launched and we hope more people participate." 

The IIGF event will be followed by a three-day webinar in November 2021, which will witness discussions on the road to digitisation in India. The salient feature of the event will be the three plenary sessions on themes- India and Internet- India’s Digital Journey and Her Global Role, Equity, Access and Quality - High-speed Internet for All and Cyber Norms and Ethics in Internet Governance.