'New IT rules focussed on controlling social media, not seeking accountability'

Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Wednesday slammed the government saying that the new IT rules instead of seeking accountability have chosen to control social media platforms by bypassing all privacy norms of individuals violating the basic Right to Privacy enshrined in Indias constitutional commitments to its citizensChaturvedi said that she hopes the courts will take a nuanced and balanced call on this issueSpeaking to IANS Chaturvedi who is a Rajya Sabha member said Every country is bound to create its law mechanism to ensure accountability of platformsAlso Read India fights social media biggies sans data protection lawShe said that over the years we have seen how these platforms have become tools for propaganda fake news and manipulated narrative without being answerable to the authoritiesThese platforms adhere to norms set by regions like EU Australia Singapore US even summoned Mark Zuckerberg in publicly broadcasted questioning to understand their role in election outcomes WhatsApp has been breaching all privacy norms of Indian citizens while looking at India as a market to profiteer she saidHowever the new IT rules instead of seeking accountability have chosen to control these platforms by bypassing all privacy norms of individuals violating the basic Right to Privacy enshrined in Indias constitutional commitments to its citizens Hope the courts will take a nuanced and balanced call on this issue the Shiv Sena leader addedHer remarks came after Facebookowned WhatsApp on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the Indian government in the Delhi High Court saying that user privacy is in its DNA and requiring messaging apps to trace chats undermines peoples right to privacyThe Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology MeitY had asked social media platforms to abide by the Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules 2021 by May 25 or face strict actionThe tussle between Twitter WhatsApp and Facebook and the Union government has reached its nadir with cops raiding Twitter offices during the pandemic earlier this week over the Toolkit controversyWhatsApp has gone to the court as the deadline to comply with the new IT intermediary rules meant for big social media platforms in India ended on TuesdayWhatsApp said the new rules infringe on users privacyWhatsApp has also gone ahead with implementing its controversial user privacy policy from May 15 stating that we will maintain this approach until at least the forthcoming PDP personal data protection law comes into effectThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever