New IT rules: Delhi High Court adjourns hearing till August 4, digital media has challenged

The Delhi High Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing on all the petitions challenging the new Information Technology Rules 2021 till 4 August. Earlier, the High Court had issued a notice to the Central Government in March seeking an answer.

A bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh of Delhi High Court is hearing the case. The IT Ministry has recently implemented the Digital and Social Media Rules 2021. This has been challenged by several digital news platforms including Quint, The Wire.

New rules have come into force since 26 May

The Government of India has enacted new IT rules, which came into effect on 26 May, by clamping down on social media companies.

Facebook's proprietary messaging app WhatsApp has also approached the court against the new IT rules of the Indian government. At the same time, the government has sent a notice to all the companies asking why the rule has not been followed till now? Meanwhile, discussions are taking place that social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter may be shut down if the new IT rules are not adhered to. Let us tell you what is the dispute?

Cause of dispute

The dispute between the government and social media companies has started due to the new IT rules, which have been implemented by the Indian government since 26 May. As per the new rules, it is necessary to track the source of messages sent and shared through social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook. That is, if a wrong or fake post is going viral, then the government can ask the company about its originator, and the social media companies will have to tell who shared that post first.