Opposition parties and free-speech activists say appointments to the unit — apparently meant to aid the DMK — were made without due procedure.
Tamil Nadu government on October 6, 2023, issued a GO stating that a Fact Checking Unit under the Information and Public Relations Department will be established
The Tamil Nadu government is setting up a fact-checking’ unit under the administrative control of the Special Programme Implementation Department, for which Udhayanidhi Stalin is the minister.
This has evoked mixed responses from the political parties, with the Opposition and free-speech activists especially vocal against it.
The Tamil Development and Information (Advt) Department, on behalf of the Tamil Nadu government, issued a Government Order (GO) on 6 October stating that a fact-checking unit under the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) would be established.
The GO said that the DIPR’s director had proposed setting up the unit, which would act as a deterrent to the perpetrators, creators, and disseminators, of fake news and misinformation.
The unit would apparently check the authenticity of information related to the Tamil Nadu government across all media platforms.
The veracity of information related to the announcements, policies, schemes, guidelines, and initiatives of the state government would also be checked through this unit.
According to the GO, the proposed unit would have a “Central Task Force”, which would act as a fulcrum on which the entire superstructure of the unit would rest.
The task force would be in Chennai and office space was allocated for the Unit at the Kalaivanar Arangam in Chepauk.
It would be headed by a mission director, assisted by a project director — to coordinate training, content writing, etc.
A joint director from the DIPR would coordinate public campaigns and awareness and also collect information on fake news, misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech to analyse the content received.
There would be a district analysis team for each district with two or three members, depending upon the total number of taluks.
The DIPR has further requested the sanctioning of 80 posts for implementing the unit throughout the state.
According to the GO, the fact-checking unit would take up complaints related to the state government, its ministries, departments, public sector enterprises, and other entities for evaluation and fact-checking, irrespective of platform.
The unit would have the power to take suo motu cognizance for fact-checking as well as receiving complaints from various sources. The unit would segregate the received information after ascertaining whether it fell within its ambit.
The relevant complaints would be researched using various fact-checking tools and verified through authentic government sources of information.
This information would be split into actionable and non-actionable pools.
From the actionable pool, the Central Task Force would consult with the advisory team from the government’s legal and police departments and forward it to the concerned authorities to initiate legal action.
After verifying the authenticity of the received information from the authorised source, the fact check unit would utilise the Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) strategy to create awareness through creative content fit for dissemination on social media platforms.
A two-step process would be undertaken to evaluate any information received:
The unit would then place all fact-checked information on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
According to sources, one Iyan Karthikeyan, a former editor with a fact-checking website, would be the mission director of the project.
“Addressing hate speech does not mean limiting or prohibiting freedom of speech. It means keeping hate speech from escalating into something more dangerous" – UN secretary General, António Guterres
I am appointed as Mission Director for the Fact check unit under the…
— Iyan Karthikeyan (@Iyankarthikeyan) November 1, 2023
Karthikeyan announced on X that he had been appointed as mission director for the fact check. However, there has been no official announcement from the government.
Meanwhile, South First learnt from sources that DMK IT wing functionaries and cadres who are active on social media were being recruited for the unit.
A state-level functionary in the DMK told South First that probably all the appointments had been made. and that the unit was almost ready to function.
The appointment has drawn criticism from the prime Opposition party — the AIADMK.
Speaking on it, former minister and Deputy Leader of Opposition (designate) RB Udhyakumar asked: “Why is the DMK government so consciously setting up such a unit secretly?”
Udhayakumar to South First said that there was information from reliable sources that only sympathisers of the DMK and members of the DMK IT wing were being recruited for this unit.
He added that it was obvious the DMK did not want any information to be spread against them on social media.
Udhayakumar also said, “It’s a good initiative and a necessity to curb the disinformation that is being spread on social media. But the way the DMK is setting up this Fact Checking Unit creates doubt in the minds of the people.”
He noted: “When a GO is issued, proper procedures should be followed regarding how the government recruits. Would any advertisement be issued for the recruitment? Why the DMK government is doing things under the table?”
He also said that political parties may come and go, but the government would remain. While setting up such sensitive units, an IAS officer should have been appointed to the top post rather than the manpower being outsourced.
The AIADMK leader also said that there was a high chance that the DMK government would curb the voices of individuals and Opposition parties speaking against it on social media, and this was a threat to the Freedom of Expression.
He also stated that the move implied the DMK was keen on avoiding any negative criticism and hiding the anti-incumbency on social media in the run-up to next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
Narayanan Thirupathy, the vice-president of Tamil Nadu BJP, said that this order was a draconian one and that the DMK is scared of criticism.
Speaking to South First, Tirupathy noted that there was nothing wrong with controlling and fighting the fake news in social media.
“But with whom and what guidelines and laws are you going to control the fake news? That is important. Even the Central government has brought in a fact-checking unit under the PIB, and it comprises senior Central government officials and well-equipped experts,” he pointed out.
Narayanan also said that social media always carries the emotional and sentimental values of the common people.
Adding that social media was particularly used by youngsters and politically active commoners, the BJP leader opined that the DMK was establishing such a unit in order to cover the failures of the government in the past two years and be afraid of those discussions among social media users.
“But what the DMK brought here is a draconian order. The DMK is scared of criticism. By making it in secret and without transparency, the DMK is behaving like a fascist government. The intention of the DMK government behind setting up this fact-checking unit is to curb the Opposition’s voices.” he said.
Tirupathy also said: “The person who claims to be heading this unit has represented himself as an ideological person on several platforms. How will he tolerate other ideologies? Appointing persons who are closer to the party’s ideology in such a key unit is not going to help anyway. It is against free speech and the Right to Expression.”
Pointing to the allocation of funds to the unit, the BJP leader said: “When the DMK government is not able to provide funds for the protesting nurses, doctors, and teachers, what is the need to establish such a unit in a hurry, and that too in contingency funds? It’s the taxpayers’ money. This shows the arrogance of the ruling party. The DMK will never learn any lessons, and it is digging its own grave.”
Questioning the need to put the unit under the Special Programme Implementation Department, Tirupathy said: “It is clear that Udhayanidhi Stalin is influencing the chief minister’s office.”
It may be noted that Udhayanidhi is the son of TN Chief Minister and DMK chief MK Stalin.
“This establishment is totally in violation of law — a violation of the Right to Expression. The arrests of so many supporters, office-bearers, and cadres for social media posts in the past two years make it clear that the DMK is afraid of the BJP and its growth in the state, and this unit is an example of that,” said Tirupathy.
Free speech activist Jayaraman Venkatesan, founder of the anti-corruption NGO Arappor Iyakkam, said fighting against disinformation was essential in this digital era.
However, what the Tamil Nadu government intended to do with the fact-checking unit — whose setting-up seemed to have several irregularities — raised several questions, he said.
“The GO does not say what falls under the ambit of fact-checking, and the unit is not properly designed. They say that the government’s source of information will be verified, but even the government lies blatantly at times, and there are several examples in Tamil Nadu itself,” he told South First.
“It seems the fact-checking unit is more of a propaganda of the government and an extended arm of the DMK IT wing, meant to officially counter the news spread against the DMK government,” he added.
He also said that it was puzzling why this unit was put under the control of Udhayanidhi instead of the information minister or the DIPR.
“Basically it is public relations work. The menace of disinformation should have been handled by the appropriate department. There is no reason why it was brought under the Special Programme Implementation Department,” he said.
He also explained: “Wherever the hate speech is involved, it is criminal in nature, which is dangerous to society. That should be probed by law enforcement agencies. If at all they need to strengthen the fight against disinformation, they have to empower those units and induct experts in them.”
Questioning the lack of transparency in the appointments, Jayaraman said “How can the government, which speaks about social justice, recruit people to such a key and sensitive unit without any reservation and proper advertisements in newspapers that have a wide circulation?”
He added: “The government issued a GO on 6 October and appointed persons within a span of 20-25 days, which is highly shocking. There is no reason why such urgency was needed to be shown in the issue. The setting up of the unit has several violations. The process should have been above the board.”
He also asked how an outsourced team could be empowered to consult with a legal team.
“The legal definition of ‘consulting’ is very different from the normal English definition of ‘consulting’. The Supreme Court has emphasised it in several instances. Consulting is a heavy term when it comes to the government,” he noted.
“For example, it is similar to the term ‘aid and advise the President/Governor’. In a common reading of the phrase, it would give a sense of assisting and giving advice. But the legality of the term denotes that ‘it should be accepted’. Here ‘consulting’ means the police cannot refuse to file a case if this ‘unit’ charges an individual if it feels that they are spreading fake news. It is an absolute threat subjected to the whims and wishes of the fact-checking unit. It is dangerous,” he said.
South First made efforts to get replies from the authorities concerned on the allegations levelled, but to no avail.
The director and joint director of the DIPR of Tamil Nadu did not respond when South First contacted them for clarifications on the allegations,
Efforts to contact the Information and Publicity Minister MP Saminathan and Minister for Special Programme Implementation Udhayanidhi Stalin were futile.
The newly appointed Mission Director Iyan Karthikeyan was also not available for comments.
In the first week of October, the Karnataka government floated an Expression of Interest (EOI) to empanel agencies to set up an Information Disorder Tackling Unit, aimed at tackling misinformation, disinformation, and fake news.
The invitation for bids was open to all entities registered in India who fulfilled the pre-qualification criteria specified.
This meant they should be a legal entity or company registered in India, should have at least three years of existence, should be involved in fact-checking services, and have a track record of carrying out similar activities or running a similar unit for other organisations.
The fact-checking body — a misinformation combat cell — by the Karnataka government, would feature an Oversight Committee and a designated point of contact for review, along with nodal officers.
The proposed Oversight Committee would comprise key members from diverse backgrounds, including the Head of the Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology, and Science & Technology; the Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence/CID); a representative from the Department of Information and Public Relations; MD of Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society; Dean of Electrical, Electronics, and Computer Sciences at Indian Institute of Science (IISc); Additional Advocate General; Central Head of CySecK (Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security); and representatives from civil society.
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