In the draft rules under DPDP law, you have suggested “verifiable consent” of parents when children join social media, against going the Australia way which has announced a complete ban for those under age of 16. Was a ban ever considered?
These are things which every society has to decide for itself. And so that is a social thing as to whether you will restrict access completely. In the Indian context, a lot of learning also takes place online. So, if you block complete access, is that a good way? That’s a broader social debate. We control only the technology of it, but who should have access and how, that is something which is where the society at large has to have some sort of a consensus and the govt then needs to take it up and move forward.
So, there is no plan of a complete ban?
I don’t think anyone has even suggested that so far. As far as a ban is concerned, I don’t think that’s even been discussed. I mean there are issues on how you prevent harm (to children) and what measures can be taken to prevent harm. But, that’s not gone to the extent of a complete ban.
The govt has time and again expressed frustration in dealing with the Big Tech and how open – or prompt – they are to requests and orders around content takedown. Is the compliance getting worse or getting better?
Compliance is actually going up tremendously, and many, many cases are dealt with before it even comes to the question of blocking. They do it immediately. Based on their own community guidelines or the takedown requests given out by the govt over unlawful content, the timeframe within which they do it now is really short than earlier.
And compared to where it was, say two or three years ago, it’s gone up remarkably. The number of things which are taken down, the timeliness with which they’re taken down, has gone up remarkably. These are on issues such as CSAM (child sexual abuse material), offensive content of various kinds, and on something that may disturb communal harmony. They do act, and on time.
Cyber frauds have emerged as a major concern, with people losing thousands of crores of rupees and new phenomenon like digital arrests emerging in today’s day and age. How concerned are you?
We are very concerned. First of all, let me emphasise that there is nothing called a cyber arrest. There is no provision for a cyber arrest or a digital arrest in any Indian law. People, including the educated, are falling for it due to a lack of awareness. Even the PM has spoken about this issue, which reflects the importance we are giving to this new problem.
Not just the IT ministry, but there are a plethora of agencies involved in cyber security, which includes the ministry of home affairs and the i4C (India Cybercrime Coordination Centre), apart from the office of the National Security Advisor to address these problems.
