Manipur DM issues notice under new digital rules, withdraws it: See details here

The notice was issued over a talk show on current affairs and news hosted on a social media platform under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, notified on February 25

The first notice to be served under the new rules for digital media framed by the Centre last week issued by a district magistrate (DM) in Manipur was withdrawn on Tuesday after the information & broadcasting (I&B) ministry said that states did not have the power to take such steps. Here is all you need to know about the notice and the rules:

(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 29, 2017, a man checks his cell phone as he waits in line to enter the US Supreme Court to view a hearing in Washington, DC, Carpenter v. United States on whether prosecutors violated the Fourth Amendment by collecting a criminal suspect's cellphone location and movement data without a warrant. In a landmark digital privacy case, the US Supreme Court ruled Friday, June 22, 2018, that police need a warrant before obtaining cell phone location data about a suspect from telecom companies. In a 5-4 decision, the nation's highest court said that cell phone location data is protected under the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable search and seizure. The case stemmed from the police acquiring mobile phone location information about a robbery suspect without a warrant. / AFP PHOTO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / ALEX WONG (AFP)

• The notice was issued over a talk show on current affairs and news hosted on a social media platform under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, notified on February 25.

• It was issued on March 1 and served on Tuesday morning to the publisher/intermediary of Khanasi Neinasi, which means Let’s Talk in Manipuri.

• This was probably the first such action against digital news anywhere in the country four days after a gazette notification on the new digital media rules were published.

• I&B minister Prakash Javadekar said the rules are very clear that a DM does not have the power to issue such a notice.

• He added the mechanism is mostly self-regulatory and only in very serious cases can they complain to the ministry.

• The show is hosted on the Facebook page of Kishorechandra Wangkhem, an Imphal-based journalist against whom the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in the state has slapped several cases since 2018.

• Wangkhem has been jailed three times.

• The notice was issued by Naorem Praveen Singh, the DM of Imphal West district, who later in the evening issued a letter mentioning that the notice “stands withdrawn”.