New Delhi: 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” authorized to send notices, including takedown requests, to social media intermediaries regarding illegal content related to the Indian Army and its components under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act.
Prior to this notification, the Indian Army relied on the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to enforce takedowns or block unlawful content pertaining to the army, according to an army source familiar with the matter.
“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,” the person said, requesting anonymity.
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The source emphasized that a direct approach is necessary given the immediate impact of much of this content, which can be delayed when routed through MeitY. “For example, if there is a Pakistan-run handle which is proliferating misinformation or disinformation, we should be in a position to issue notices directly to the intermediaries.”
For matters of national security or where the army’s image is at stake, the person added, this new direct route allows the army to flag content to companies more efficiently.
Under Section 79 of the IT Act, intermediaries can claim safe harbour protections against liability for third-party content. However, Section 79(3)(b) stipulates that this protection does not apply if the intermediary fails to remove or disable access when notified by the “appropriate” government or “its agency.”
In February, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, acting on inputs from the Defence Ministry, Intelligence Bureau, and Jammu and Kashmir Police, directed Delhi-based news magazine The Caravan to remove a story alleging civilian abuse, torture, and murder by the Indian Army in Jammu. The order was issued under the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, and the magazine has since challenged it in court.
“Section 79(3)(b) erects a blocking process separate from Section 69A with a much lower threshold for issuing takedown notices and grants power to a much larger swathe of ministries, departments and law enforcement agencies,” Hindustan Times quoted Pavit Singh Katoch, general counsel at Inshorts.
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