IT ministry empowers body to flag ‘fake news’ related to Indian govt on social media
Story highlights
If social media firms fail to abide by the PIB factcheck, then they will lose their safe harbour immunity that protects them from any misleading or illegal content shared by users on their platforms
The Indian government has empowered the Press Information Bureau (PIB)— a nodal agency of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting—to flag any “fake news” about the government and have it taken down across social media platforms.
If social media firms fail to abide by the PIB factcheck, then they will lose their safe harbour immunity that protects them from any misleading or illegal content shared by users on their platforms.
The guidelines are part of the amended IT Rules 2021 that allowed the PIB to keep an eye on any “misleading” or “fake information” related to the working of the central government.
The decision has been criticised by the Editors Guild of India—a non-profit organisation of journalists—and The News Broadcasters & Digital Association—which represents private news broadcasters—saying that giving PIB such sweeping powers will result in “censorship” of the press.
Minister of State for IT & Electronics Rajeev Chandrasekhar, however, differed with this view saying that the idea is not to curb free speech.
“Let me also add that there is no obligation on the intermediaries to take down the content flagged by PIB if they conclude that the fact-check report is erroneous. In this case, they will lose seeing their safe harbour, and the matter will be taken to a court,” he said.
He said that if the news outlets have a disagreement over the factcheck, they have the liberty to stand by their reportage, however, doing so would cost social media firms their immunity against potential lawsuits.
"If you choose to have a disagreement with the fact checker, you can continue to have that on your platform but then the person who has been aggrieved by that disinformation and you will have a legitimate dispute in the court ... Section 79 was a safe harbour. That will get removed," he said.
He said that the IT ministry will notify an entity that will flag false information posted online pertaining to the government.
While releasing guidelines under the IT Rules 2021, the minister said that the work on fact check is still in progress.
“Government has decided to notify an entity through Meity and that organisation then would be the fact checker for all aspects of content online and only those content that are related to the government,” Chandrasekhar said.
He said that "Dos and Don'ts" around fact-checking will be shared before it is notified.
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