Table of Contents
Issue
- The draft regulations require web platforms to remove online content that promotes Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems.
- The country’s ministry of electronics and IT proposed changes to India’s Information Technology Act last December that would require web platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter to remove online content that promotes Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems or ENDS. As a category, ENDS includes e-cigarettes and other methods of vaping, and currently occupies a legal grey area in India.
- The draft regulations, which have been widely criticised as an attempt to over-regulate internet speech.
- Threats to public safety stipulated by the draft rules include the “promotion of cigarettes or any other tobacco products or consumption of intoxicants” including alcohol, ENDS, and other “products that enable nicotine delivery.” Govt. stand
Public health
- young people – a craze that has reached Indian schools now too.
- E-cigarettes have been banned in eight Indian states, but are not illegal at the national level. The health ministry issued an advisory last August urging states to ban sale and import of e-cigarettes, though the Delhi high court ruled this advisory is not binding to states. Criticism
Over Regulation
- That could also mean (a ban on content) communicating the risk differential – telling people that vaping is substantially safer than smoking.
- No Indians, Association of Vapers India says, “should be denied information or access to technology that can save their lives.
- India, home to over 100 million smokers, is reportedly being targeted by global vaping giants as a burgeoning market for e-cigarettes. The country’s vapour products market was valued at just $15.6 million in 2017, but is expected to grow 60% per year until 2022
Way forward
- The concern that ENDS are becoming popular among teens can be addressed through sensitive guidelines such as age-verification and responsible communication of risks t
- Instead of imperiling the lives of millions of Indians by denying them access to potentially life-saving information.
What are e-cigarettes?
What are the main concerns now?
- In India smoking devices are easily available through online shopping portals and with little information out in the public domain about the illeffects of e-cigarettes there is a misconception that it is less harmful than traditional cigarettes.
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