In old draft, JPC proposed to back some safeguards
NEW DELHI: The draft report of the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) on the data protection bill, drawn up when it was headed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Meenakshi Lekhi, was finally circulated last week among the members of the panel as a summary of proceedings, people aware of the matter said.
The report was in penultimate stages and some of its key suggestions -- while still under discussion -- may likely be retained in the report that will now be drawn up under the new chairperson, BJP’S PP Chaudhary, the people said on condition of anonymity. The JPC has been looking into the draft law since 2019 and has been given several deadline extensions -- the latest being due to a change in several members, including the chairperson, after Lekhi was inducted as a minister. The report drafted at the time was yet to be circulated for final inputs by members despite their demands.
As per the summary now shared, the report proposed to treat social media platforms as publishers -- a move that would make them liable for content posted by users -- and to add back the condition of “just, fair, reasonable and proportionate” in Section 35, which deals with exemptions that the government can claim in accessing personal data, one of the people cited above said.
This was of particular concern because the bill cleared by the government allowed for the government to claim an exemption as long as it felt it was “necessary or expedient” to do so in a particular set of circumstances, such as those relating to national security.
The test of “just, fair, reasonable and proportionate” was part of the first version of the law, which was presented as the recommendation of the Srikrishna Committee.
The summary, the people cited above said, also proposed to refer the 2019 Bill as the data protection bill, 2021 and that it be applied irrespective of any other law governing contractual relations between a data fiduciary and a data principal in so far as they relate to the contours of the bill.
It will supersede other laws, including the information technology act and even the telegraph act, experts said, if the recommendations are accepted and included in the final legislation.
The summary report also says the Information Technology Act was unable to manage social media intermediaries, and that “the Act had not been able to regulate social media platforms adequately because the Act has not been able to keep at pace with the changing nature of the social media ecosystem”. The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 has general provisions regarding social media platforms and intermediaries and the committee felt the need to regulate such platforms.
The person mentioned above said the “designated intermediaries are working as publishers of the content, owing to the fact that they have the ability to select the receiver of content and also exercise control over the access to any such content hosted by them, therefore, a mechanism must be devised for their regulation”.
Many of these are part of changes being considered by the JPC, which is studying the personal data protection bill, sent to it for further deliberation after parliamentarians objected to the version introduced in Parliament in 2019, the officials said.