• Source:JND
Add as a preferred


The Ministry of Defence has designated a senior army officer, the Additional Directorate General (ADG) of Strategic Communication in the Indian Army, as the "nodal officer." This officer is authorized to issue notices, including takedown requests, to social media intermediaries regarding illegal content related to the Indian Army and its components, in accordance with Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act.

Earlier, the Indian Army used to be dependent on the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in order to have unlawful content related to the army removed or blocked, according to a report by the Hindustan Times.

"Through this notification, the ADG (strategic communication) will be able to highlight cases and issue notices directly to intermediaries when we find unlawful content related to the Indian army. Then it is up to the intermediaries to assess what to do with that content," reported HT quoting a person familiar to the matter.

The person further also explained that the process of removing such content, earlier, took a long time because of the process of addressing the the issue by MeitY.

"Through this notification, the ADG (strategic communication) will be able to highlight cases and issue notices directly to intermediaries when we find unlawful content related to the Indian army. Then it is up to the intermediaries to assess what to do with that content," HT quoted the person saying.

ALSO READ: Chennai CEO Says Rapido Charged Rs 1,000 For Rs 350 Ride, Company Responds

Reportedly, for matters concerning national security and the army's reputation, there is now a direct way to report issues to the companies.

Section 79 of the IT Act outlines the conditions under which an intermediary can claim safe harbor protections from liability for third-party content. However, Section 79(3)(b) specifies that this protection is not applicable if the intermediary does not remove or disable access after being notified by the "appropriate" government or "its agency."