The Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT has questioned the legality of the recent rules framed by the government to regulate OTT and social media platforms.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) was deposed before the parliamentary panel on intermediary guidelines in the context of examination of the subject review of functioning of Central Board of Film Certification.
According to industry sources, certain question were raised by the panel which included, whether these rules are in conformity with the legal framework, why the regulatory mechanism consists of only bureaucrats and not representatives of civil society, judiciary and professionals. In addition, members also asked the officials whether they had consulted stakeholders before bringing these rules.
The panel is chaired by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.
