Regulating digital media: News portals wary of Centre's latest guidelines

The new guidelines seek to regulate OTT platforms and digital news media, whether they use other intermediary sites or apps such as Twitter or Facebook or host news media content on their own websites

On Monday, a small Imphal-based news portal received a notice from the state government seeking compliance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guide­lines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

It added that “steps as deemed fit shall be initiated without further notice” if The Frontier Manipur failed to comply. The notice came a day after the outlet aired a discussion titled Media Under Siege.

Although the notice was withdrawn after the Centre clarified that the state government was not empowered to administer the rules, this has led to consternation and fear that the new digital rules could further erode press