The Broadband India Forum (BIF) has released a new report raising suggestions for Digital India Act such as the need for an improved institutional framework to deal with cybersecurity, establish process for oversight of surveillance, fairer content curation and grievance redressal. BIF stated that it would only be possible if there is an attentive balancing of multiple interests such as national security and public order, online safety, protection of fundamental rights and promoting innovation.
The key focus areas in the report were online censorship, intermediary liability, surveillance and cyber security. There is a need for a robust law provision to safeguard the online landscape which is ever-evolving . The revision of Section 79 framework was suggested to better describe the obligations of different types of intermediaries and to ensure processes for taking down content is followed on principles of natural justice. It was also suggested that adopting a co-regulatory framework for content moderation in order to avoid problems stemming from private censorship and excessive government interference in digital ecosystem. Revision of Section 69A of IT was also recommended in order to remove government’s power to block access to online content.
