Amid outrage over giving PIB powers to flag fake news, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said government will hold discussions with stakeholders.
Government to hold discussions on PIB fact check. Representational Image. (Creative Commons)
Amid outrage over a plan to give powers to its publicity arm, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) to police fake news on social media, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday, 24 January, said that the government will next month hold discussions with stakeholders before the proposal is implemented.
The minister also said that the rules for regulating online gaming are expected to be notified by 31 January after which these will be tabled in Parliament.
“We will hold separate consultation (on PIB fact check) sometime early next month,” Chandrasekhar said when asked about clarification on the proposed amendment to the IT rules 2021.
Chandrasekhar also said that the consultation on Digital Personal Data Protection Act is over and it is being processed within the realms of the government for notification.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) last week released a modification to the draft Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which it had previously released for public consultation.
While the consultation is largely going on for framing rules for online gaming, it added a small note in the due diligence section for the removal of content identified as false, fake or misleading by the PIB or any government-authorised agency.
On 18 January, the Editors Guild of India raised a red flag over the proposed amendment as it essentially mandates that digital news organisations have to take down news deemed to be fake by the PIB or any “other agency chosen by the Union government”.
“Already multiple laws exist to deal with comment that is found to be factually incorrect. This new procedure basically serves to make it easier to muzzle the free press, and will give sweeping powers to the PIB, or any ‘other agency authorised by the Central Government for fact-checking’, to force online intermediaries to take down content that the government may find problematic,” the Guild said in a statement.
In its statement, the Editors Guild of India noted that the determination of fake news cannot rest in the sole hands of the government as it would result in the censorship of the press.
The Guild also viewed the amendment as counter-productive as it would have an adverse impact on the ability of the press to hold the government to account which, according to the Guild, is “a vital role it plays in a democracy”.
While a government move to curtail the spread of fake news and misinformation is appreciable, a government agency being appointed for the job is against the guidelines of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).
It states that fact-checkers must have “a commitment to non-partisanship and fairness” and not “unduly concentrate on any one side”.
A report in the online media-focused portal Newslaundry said, “The PIB does not meet this criteria. Most of its ‘fact-checks’ are simply denials of media reports that are critical of the government’s (claims).”
The report further added, “(The PIB) does not understand the difference between ‘refutation’ and ‘repudiation’. To repudiate is to deny and reject, but to refute is to disprove. A repudiation requires a PIB babu to prepare a ‘fake news’ graphic for Twitter, but refutation comes with the heavy-duty of painstakingly demonstrating a claim to be false. This sole process is why many decent journalists earn wages, however meagre.”
(With inputs from PTI)
Jan 29, 2024
Jan 22, 2024
Jan 09, 2024
Jan 09, 2024
Dec 30, 2023
Dec 25, 2023
