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Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar. (Photo credit: PTI)
According to the draft proposal, any news that has been deemed “fake” by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) fact-checking unit will have to be taken down by all platforms, including social media platforms
The story
A draft proposal of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has triggered a controversy in the media over the proposed power to the Union Government to take down news articles as and when deemed “fake” by its agency, the Press Information Bureau (PIB). The PIB is the Centre’s nodal agency for sharing news updates.
The Editors Guild of India (EGI) has expressed deep concern over the draft amendment. “At the outset, determination of fake news cannot be in the sole hands of the government and will result in the censorship of the press. Already multiple laws exist to deal with content that is found to be factually incorrect”, the Guild said in a statement on Wednesday.
Rule 3(1)(b)(v) of the amended version of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 states that platforms “shall make reasonable efforts to cause the user of its computer resource not to” post content that has been “identified as fake or false by the fact check unit at the Press Information Bureau of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting or other agency authorised by the Central Government for fact-checking”.
The script
According to the draft proposal, any news that has been deemed…
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