Section 2 in Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021
2. Definitions.—
(1)In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires-(a)‗access control mechanism‘ means any measure, including a technical measure, throughwhich access to online curated content may be restricted based on verification of the identityor age of a user;(b)‗access services‘ means any measure, including technical measure such as closed captioning,subtitles and audio descriptions, through which the accessibility of online curated content maybe improved for persons with disabilities;(c)‗Act‘ means the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000);(d)‗child‘ means any person below the age of eighteen years;(e)‗committee‘ means the Inter-Departmental Committee constituted under rule 14;(f)‗communication link‘ means a connection between a hypertext or graphical element, and oneor more items in the same or different electronic document wherein upon clicking on ahyperlinked item, the user is automatically transferred to the other end of the hyperlink whichcan be another electronic record or another website or application or graphical element;(g)‗content‘ means the electronic record defined in clause (t) of section 2 of the Act;(h)‗content descriptor‘ means the issues and concerns which are relevant to the classification ofany online curated content, including discrimination, depiction of illegal or harmfulsubstances, imitable behaviour, nudity, language, sex, violence, fear, threat, horror and othersuch concerns as specified in the Schedule annexed to the rules;(i)‗digital media‘ means digitized content that can be transmitted over the internet or computernetworks and includes content received, stored, transmitted, edited or processed by-(i)an intermediary; or(ii)a publisher of news and current affairs content or a publisher of online curated content;(j)‗grievance‘ includes any complaint, whether regarding any content, any duties of anintermediary or publisher under the Act, or other matters pertaining to the computer resourceof an intermediary or publisher, as the case may be;(k)‗Grievance Officer‘ means an officer appointed by the intermediary or the online gaming self-regulatory body or the publisher, as thecase may be, for the purposes of these rules;(ka)„Grievance Appellate Committee‟ means a grievance appellate committee constituted under rule 3A;”. [inserted by Amendment rules 2022](l)‗Ministry‘ means, for the purpose of Part II of these rules unless specified otherwise, theMinistry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, and for thepurpose of Part III of these rules, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Governmentof India;(m)‗news and current affairs content‘ includes newly received or noteworthy content, includinganalysis, especially about recent events primarily of socio-political, economic or cultural nature, made available over the internet or computer networks, and any digital media shall benews and current affairs content where the context, substance, purpose, import and meaning ofsuch information is in the nature of news and current affairs content.(n)‗newspaper‘ means a periodical of loosely folded sheets usually printed on newsprint andbrought out daily or at least once in a week, containing information on current events, publicnews or comments on public news;(o)‗news aggregator‘ means an entity who, performing a significant role in determining the newsand current affairs content being made available, makes available to users a computer resourcethat enable such users to access the news and current affairs content which is aggregated,curated and presented by such entity.(p)‗on demand‘ means a system where a user, subscriber or viewer is enabled to access, at a timechosen by such user, any content in electronic form, which is transmitted over a computerresource and is selected by the user;(q)online curated content‘ means any curated catalogue of audio-visual content, other than newsand current affairs content, which is owned by, licensed to or contracted to be transmitted by apublisher of online curated content, and made available on demand, including but not limitedthrough subscription, over the internet or computer networks, and includes films, audio visualprogrammes, documentaries, television programmes, serials, podcasts and other such content;(qa)"online game‟ means a game that is offered on the Internet and is accessible by a user through a computer resource or an intermediary.Explanation.—In this clause, „Internet‟ means the combination of computer facilities and electromagnetic transmission media, and related equipment and software, comprising the interconnected worldwide network of computer networks that transmits information based on a protocol for controlling such transmission;(qb)„online gaming intermediary‟ means any intermediary that enables the users of its computer resource to access one or more online games;(qc)„online gaming self-regulatory body‟ means an entity designated as such under rule 4A;(qd)„online real money game‟ means an online game where a user makes a deposit in cash or kind with the expectation of earning winnings on that deposit.Explanation.—In this clause, „winnings‟ means any prize, in cash or kind, which is distributed or intended to be distributed to a user of an online game based on the performance of the user and in accordance with the rules of such online game;(qe)„permissible online game‟ means a permissible online real money game or any other online game that is not an online real money game;(qf)„permissible online real money game‟ means an online real money game verified by an online gaming self-regulatory body under rule 4A(r)‗person‘ means a person as defined in sub-section (31) of section 2 of the Income tax Act, 1961. (43 of 1961);(s)‗publisher‘ means a publisher of news and current affairs content or a publisher of onlinecurated content;(t)‗publisher of news and current affairs content‘ means an online paper, news portal, newsaggregator, news agency and such other entity called by whatever name, which is functionallysimilar to publishers of news and current affairs content but shall not include newspapers,replica e-papers of the newspaper and any individual or user who is not transmitting content inthe course of systematic business, professional or commercial activity;(u)‗publisher of online curated content‘ means a publisher who, performing a significant role indetermining the online curated content being made available, makes available to users acomputer resource that enables such users to access online curated content over the internet orcomputer networks, and such other entity called by whatever name, which is functionallysimilar to publishers of online curated content but does not include any individual or user whois not transmitting online curated content in the course of systematic business, professional orcommercial activity;(v)‗significant social media intermediary‘ means a social media intermediary having number ofregistered users in India above such threshold as notified by the Central Government;(w)‗social media intermediary‘ means an intermediary which primarily or solely enables onlineinteraction between two or more users and allows them to create, upload, share, disseminate,modify or access information using its services;(x)‗user‘ means any person who accesses or avails any computer resource of an intermediary or apublisher for the purpose of hosting, publishing, sharing, transacting, viewing, displaying,downloading or uploading information and includes other persons jointly participating in usingsuch computer resource and addressee and originator;(y)‗user account‘ means the account registration of a user with an intermediary or publisher andincludes profiles, accounts, pages, handles and other similar presences by means of which auser is able to access the services offered by the intermediary or publisher.(2)Words and expressions used and not defined in these rules but defined in the Act and rulesmade thereunder shall have the same meaning as assigned to them in the Act and the said rules, as the casemay be.[भाग II—खण्ड 3(i)] भारत का राजपत्र : ऄसाधारण 21
