Digital media norms to be administered by Centre, not states

The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry on Wednesday issued a memorandum to states and union territories saying that the new rules for digital news publishers and over-the-top (OTT) platforms are to be administered by the Centre, not the states.

The government had notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Codes) Rules, 2021 on February 25.

The Part III of the rules provide for furnishing of information by publishers to government and periodical disclosure of information regarding grievance redressal in public domain.

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"It is hereby informed that Part III of the rules are administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. These powers have not been delegated to State Governments/Police Commissioners," the memorandum said.

The government's order comes a day after the Centre had to step in after a district magistrate in Manipur asked the publisher of Khanasi Neinasi to prove that norms under the new rules were followed.

I&B officials had called the district magistrate's action as 'overstepping', and the notice was reportedly retracted a few hours later.

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