India Could Change IT Laws To Shutdown Apps And Sites That Spread Fake News
The Indian Government has suggested that amendments to the Information Technology (IT) Act should be made to curb the spreading of fake news in the country.
As per a report by The Times Of India, the government plans to make changes to the IT rules to charge penalty and pull down websites, causing the dissemination of fake and demeaning news as well as child abuse and revenge porn.
The possible changes to the IT laws could heavily affect tech companies such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Telegram.
One government official said, “Even the penalties that we currently have under the IT Act are not sufficient and need to be revised. Many global companies have a big turnover and relatively-small penalties may not be a sufficient deterrence.”
If the companies fail to abide by the laws, they could be charged up to INR 15 crore or 4 percent of the total turnover as a penalty.
To recall, earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs ordered that all the computers in India will be put under monitoring by various agencies for which the ministry invited comments and suggestions.
It seems like the Indian Government is in full swing to cutdown fake news in the country and the plan to amend Section 79 of the IT Act is another step in the same direction. However, the government is yet to reach the final conclusion.
We will keep you updated once the final amendments are made. Therefore, stick to this space!
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