Wikimedia Raises Concerns Over India’s Proposed Intermediary Liability Rules, Calls It A Threat To Freedom Of Speech

As India debates the Data Protection Bill, Wikimedia, a non-profit group, has raised concerns and written to Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, regarding their proposed intermediary liability rules.

Wikimedia, which also runs Wikipedia, provides access to free information and has therefore pointed at the possible repercussions of the rules which will compel it to set up a local entity, filter its content, among other things.

India is the fifth-largest user of Wikipedia, as nearly 771 million users from the country accessed their online encyclopaedia in November 2019.

The organisation had alerted the government about their concerns when the law was being drafted. They believe that the law would affect more than half a billion people who access information from their website. However, their apprehensions remain unanswered.

“We trust the ministry has taken the valid concerns that we and many others have raised into account when revising the draft rules. We encourage the Ministry to release the current draft and make sure there is a robust and informed debate about how the internet should be governed in India,” Ananda Keaton, general counsel, Wikimedia foundation wrote in the letter to the Indian government.

The intermediary liability rules mandate all companies to establish a local data entity in India, which is seen as an ‘unrealistic burden’ and might create a “significant financial burden” for many non-profit organisations.

“While it may be possible for larger companies to comply with local incorporation rules, it would be an unrealistic burden for a global non-profit with limited resources to comply with local incorporation requirements,” Keaton wrote in the letter to the ministry.

Worried about the threat to the freedom of expression, Wikipedia has expressed apprehensions over the rules’ traceability needs.

“We remain concerned about requirements which encourage or necessitate automated filtering of user uploads…and could severely disrupt the availability and reliability of Wikipedia,” the letter further added.

Earlier this year, Mozilla, Microsoft’s GitHub and Wikimedia had alerted the Indian government that the rules “would significantly expand surveillance requirements on internet services.” Major firms including Google and Facebook have also suggested major changes to the proposed rules.

Also Read: Explained: All You Need To Know About Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019