SRO for fact-checkers reportedly gets government’s nod, but under which law?

The Indian government has given the go-ahead to the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA) to set up a self-regulatory organization (SRO) for Indian fact-checkers, The Economic Times reported on April 21. The SRO will have in place a system to vet and approve fact-checkers, a grievance redressal system, a charter of principles for fact-checkers, etc, the report stated. It was proposed by social media platforms, Indian Express reported on April 7. This body will be for fact-checkers of non-government-related news as government-related news will be fact-checked by a government entity as per the recent IT Rules amendment. But, "like the government-regulated body for checking misinformation, these agencies can also undertake fact-checking. And the process followed is similar. If an intermediary believes that the content on their platform is genuine, they can refuse to take it down. But then, the protection under (section) 79 (of the IT Act) goes away. And the aggrieved party can take the intermediary to court,” an official told Economic Times (emphasis ours). Essentially, what this means is that fact-checkers registered with MCA will have the power to label content as fake or false, and social media platforms are expected to take down any such labeled content. If they don't, they lose safe harbor protections and can be sued in court. This is worrying because there appears to be no law that allows the government to approve an SRO with such powers. While the recent IT Rules amendment has included a provision for a government fact-check unit (which…