| The Big Story: India’s proposed intermediary liability rules could transform the Internet as we know it
(By Ranajit Dam) What started as a simmering feud with Twitter over the farmer protests is now threatening to boil over, and technology companies might need to rethink what they’re doing in the kitchen. India turned up the heat last week after announcing the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, a legally enforceable set of rules that, among other things, tightens regulatory scrutiny of social media platforms that have five million users in the country. Critics have been quick to denounce it as anti-democratic and unconstitutional; and say they could pose a threat to freedom of expression. Reuters points out that it is part of a broader trend of tech scrutiny globally, while the rules could be emulated by other countries such as the US, the UK and Australia, according to the Economic Times.
With some 700 million Internet users, India is easily the largest market for both Facebook and its messenger service, WhatsApp, but... | 