Parliamentary panel moots tighter regulations for social media

New Delhi, December 16

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The parliamentary panel on protection of data, which submitted its report after two years of deliberations and acrimony, has suggested over 20 changes in the proposed Act, including tighter curbs on social media, two-year phased introduction of the legislation, flexible penalties and including NGOs as data fiduciaries.

“The report shows if the chairman is cooperative, the government is accommodative, the Opposition is responsive,” said member of the Joint Committee on Personal Data Protection Bill Jairam Ramesh while tabling the report.

Pointing out the impossibility of a clear-cut demarcation of personal and non-personal data, the panel wanted the Bill’s title to be changed to “The Data Protection Bill”, omitting the word “Personal”.

Another major recommendation is for two-year phased introduction so that data fiduciaries and processors get ample time to accordingly change their policies, infrastructure and processes. It called for regulating social media platforms for their content and to be denied permission unless the parent company has an office in India. Further, a statutory media regulatory authority, on the lines of the Press Council of India, should regulate the content on these platforms.

The panel also asked the government to bring back mirror copy of sensitive and critical data and localise it. It should also develop an indigenous financial system to replace SWIFT the privacy of which “has been compromised widely”.

It also suggested mechanisms for dealing with children’s data, single-window system for complaints and 72-hour deadline for reporting data breach. It was also against making heads of government departments directly responsible for data breach. — TNS