Non-profit organisations like Editors Guild of India (EGI) and internet societies have raised their voices against the new Amendments in the IT Rules saying they are disturbed by the government giving itself authority to constitute a ‘fact checking unit’.
Former IT Minister Kapil Sibal has also attacked the Centre over the fact-check provisions of the IT Amendment Rules, saying now the government will decide what is fake and Union Home Minister Amit Shah says democracy is not in danger.
On April 6, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023, in which it said the government will notify an organisation that will work as a ‘Fact Checker’ for content related to the government online and on intermediaries.
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“MeitY has introduced amendments to the IT Rules that will have deeply adverse implications for press freedom in the country. As per the rules that have been notified, the Ministry has given itself the power to constitute a ‘fact checking unit’, which will have sweeping powers to determine what is ‘fake or false or misleading’, with respect to ‘any business of the Centre, and instructions to ‘intermediaries, to not host such content,” the EGI said.
There is no mention of what will be the governing mechanism for such a fact checking unit, the judicial oversight, the right to appal, or adherence to the guidelines laid down by the ‘Supreme Court of India in Shreya Singhal v Union of India case, with respect to take down of content or blocking of social media handles’. “All this is against principles of natural justice, and akin to censorship,” it said.
“Now PIB will decide what is fake and what is not and notify it. If online platforms choose to ignore, they will lose their immunity from prosecution. Now government is to decide what is fake and what is not! And Amit Shah ji says democracy is not in danger,” Sibal said.
Shifting balance of power
Nikhil Pahwa of MediaNama said that giving the government the power to fact check its fact checkers and censor their content shifts the balance of power.
“It makes the government a censor board for news, which restricts the freedom of the press. No legal standing to fact check news organisations. The IT Act allows the government no such power, and these rules are thus not legally valid.” he said.
“I hope that news organisations will come together to challenge these rules, and the SC will take these up urgently…Let’s not forget that in 2020, the IT Rules were used to similarly to being online media under government regulation, without a legal basis,” he added.
However, according to the Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the work on fact check is still in progress and dismissed the criticism of the change in rules as ‘deliberate misinformation’.
“There are no sweeping powers, neither is it ‘draconian’. IT Rules already have provisions from October 2022, which mandate social media intermediaries to not carry certain types of content if they are to have legal immunity under Sec79 of IT Act,” Chandrasekhar had said on Twitter.
