Social media influencers warned against promoting gambling
These advertisements have significant financial and socio-economic implications
By Newsmeter Network Published on 21 March 2024 12:55 PM GMT
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Hyderabad: On Thursday, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting warned social media influencers from promoting or advertising, including surrogate advertisements, of offshore online betting and gambling platforms.
The Ministry has said that these advertisements have significant financial and socio-economic implications of online betting and gambling on consumers, particularly the youth.
The government has further advised online advertisement intermediaries not to target such promotional content towards Indian audiences and to conduct sensitisation programmes among their users to refrain from publishing such content on their behalf.
Failure to comply can result in ban
The advisory cautions that failure to comply with it may lead to proceedings under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 provisions including removal or disabling of social media posts or accounts and penal action under the applicable statutes.
The advisory underlines that while Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000, provides for exemption from liability of intermediaries for third-party information, data, or communication links made available or hosted by them, subsection (3)(b) of section 79 provides that the exemption from liability shall not apply if upon receiving actual knowledge, or on being notified by the appropriate government or its agency that any information, data or communication link residing in or connected to a computer resource controlled by the intermediary is being used to commit the unlawful act, the intermediary fails to expeditiously remove or disable access to that material on that resource without vitiating the evidence in any manner.
The ministry has reiterated the advisory by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) published on March 6 which had expressed concerns regarding endorsements of betting/gambling platforms by celebrities and influencers to endorse and promote their betting activities and had cautioned that any such direct or indirect advertisement or endorsement shall be subject to rigorous scrutiny.
