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Government of India taking measures to prevent fraud involving fake news, misleading advertisements and fake products on online platforms

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Government of India taking measures to prevent fraud involving fake news, misleading advertisements and fake products on online platforms

The policies of Government of India are aimed at ensuring an open, safe, trusted and accountable internet for users in the country. The key initiatives taken by Government of India to prevent fraud involving fake news, misleading advertisements and fake products on online platforms are as under:

 

 

This information was given by the Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology Shri Jitin Prasada in a written reply in LokSabha today.

  1. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“MeitY”) in exercise of powers conferred by the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“IT Act”), has notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“IT Rules, 2021”). IT Rules, 2021 cast specific due diligence obligations on intermediaries with respect to the information that is not to be hosted, displayed, uploaded, published, transmitted, stored or shared on the platforms. Intermediaries are required not to host, store or publish any information violative of any law for the time being in force. In case of failure to observe due diligence as provided in the IT Rules, 2021, intermediaries lose the exemption from liability for any third-party information, data or communication link, under section 79 of the IT Act.
  2. Central Consumer Protection Authority (“CCPA”), established under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (“CPA”), has issued a comprehensive advisory dated 6th March, 2024 in response to instances of advertisements promoting illegal activities. The advisory, in accordance with the CPA emphasizes the prohibition of advertising, promotion, and endorsement of unlawful activities prohibited under various laws.
  3. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (“MIB”) has also issued an advisory dated 21st March, 2024 to media including social media platforms, to refrain from publishing, broadcasting advertisements of online betting platforms and/or any such product/service depicting these platforms in a surrogate manner. The online advertisement intermediaries have also been advised not to target such advertisements towards the Indian audience.
  4. The grievance redressal mechanism to address the grievances related to cyber fraud and online fraud is as follows:

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