New Delhi, Dec. 17 -- The Central government has enforced strict rules to enforce accountability on social media and OTT platforms and deal with unlawful and obscene content online. The IT Act and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021) provides punishment for various cyber offences such as privacy violations (section 66E), publishing or transmitting obscene or sexually explicit content (sections 67, 67A, 67B), and also empowers police to investigate offences (section 78), enter public place, search and arrest suspected person under section 80.

In case of failure of the intermediaries to observe the legal obligations as provided in the IT Rules, 2021, they lose their...