Digital news and current affairs publishers question why in the new IT Rules, they are treated on par with the social media and OTT platforms. The constitutionality of these rules have been challenged. As it is there was lack of consultation between the government and the news media, before these rules were made.

Unlike social media, news media are already regulated by the Press Council the Cable and TV Networks (Regulation) Act and the NBSA. Therefore, it was not necessary to frame the additional rules.

In fact, the IT Act dealing with the digital intermediaries, does not apply to news publishers. It deals with content regulation to the limited extent — say child pornography, obscenity, sexually explicit material and cyberterrorism. These do not apply to the news media.

The criticism is also levelled against the rules going beyond the scope of the parent act. The three-tier mechanism ultimately leads to empower the government to hold media to a ‘code of ethics’.

There are ambiguous notions of half-truths, good taste and decency. These tend to intimidate the news media into a kind of self-censorship. It vests the government with an overreaching power over news content.