Members object to tweaks, JPC data bill report stalled | India News – Rashtra News : Rashtra News
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NEW DELHI: The joint parliamentary committee on Personal Data Protection Bill was unable to adopt its draft report on Friday as panel chair P P Chaudhary sought to insert last-minute amendments that did away with the clauses on social media platforms on grounds that they were covered under the new IT rules.
The move ran into vehement protests by opposition members, including BJD’s Bhartruhari Mahtab and Amar Patnaik, Congress’ Manish Tewari, Jairam Ramesh and Gaurav Gogoi, and even BJP’s Satya Pal Singh, who said there is an urgent need for a law on the subject.
Key objections raised by MPs pertained to a bid to “dilute” the penalty clause that fixes 2% and 4% of global incomes of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, if they are found in violation of privacy laws. The last-minute amendments, sources said, sought to bring this down to a standard sum of Rs 10-15 crore, which led to heated exchanges between some members who alleged that the government was attempting to dilute the penalty clause following pressure from the Big Tech. They said the social media firms pressured the government to tone down the applicable penalties.
The JPC has seen discussion on whether social media can be merely termed as a platform or aggregator or is in fact a “publisher” with the same responsibilities as a publication. Chaudhary did argue that the IT guidelines were not formulated when the panel had taken up the matter but MPs felt there is a need for a specific law and the data bill presents an excellent opportunity given that there was unanimity in the panel over the need for Big Tech to be more accountable.
After considerable discussion during which Chaudhary said the penalty clause was not very practical, it was decided that a fresh draft of the committee’s report will be circulated by November 18 and the committee will meet again on November 22 to consider the bill afresh.
Sources said MPs also demanded that the issue of the IT rules covering accountability of social media platforms should be specifically written into the JPC’s report if this was the argument Chaudhary wanted the committee to consider.
Deliberations also saw members oppose the contentious clause 35 of the draft data protection bill, which grants blanket exemption to the government and its agencies from complying with any and all provisions of the PDP bill. Members argued that government should only be exempted under a “just, fair, reasonable and proportionate procedure”, and that exemption should only be exercised in “exceptional” cases.
The move ran into vehement protests by opposition members, including BJD’s Bhartruhari Mahtab and Amar Patnaik, Congress’ Manish Tewari, Jairam Ramesh and Gaurav Gogoi, and even BJP’s Satya Pal Singh, who said there is an urgent need for a law on the subject.
Key objections raised by MPs pertained to a bid to “dilute” the penalty clause that fixes 2% and 4% of global incomes of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, if they are found in violation of privacy laws. The last-minute amendments, sources said, sought to bring this down to a standard sum of Rs 10-15 crore, which led to heated exchanges between some members who alleged that the government was attempting to dilute the penalty clause following pressure from the Big Tech. They said the social media firms pressured the government to tone down the applicable penalties.
The JPC has seen discussion on whether social media can be merely termed as a platform or aggregator or is in fact a “publisher” with the same responsibilities as a publication. Chaudhary did argue that the IT guidelines were not formulated when the panel had taken up the matter but MPs felt there is a need for a specific law and the data bill presents an excellent opportunity given that there was unanimity in the panel over the need for Big Tech to be more accountable.
After considerable discussion during which Chaudhary said the penalty clause was not very practical, it was decided that a fresh draft of the committee’s report will be circulated by November 18 and the committee will meet again on November 22 to consider the bill afresh.
Sources said MPs also demanded that the issue of the IT rules covering accountability of social media platforms should be specifically written into the JPC’s report if this was the argument Chaudhary wanted the committee to consider.
Deliberations also saw members oppose the contentious clause 35 of the draft data protection bill, which grants blanket exemption to the government and its agencies from complying with any and all provisions of the PDP bill. Members argued that government should only be exempted under a “just, fair, reasonable and proportionate procedure”, and that exemption should only be exercised in “exceptional” cases.
( News Source :Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Rashtra News staff and is published from a timesofindia.indiatimes.com feed.)
