Check Or Curb?

On April 6, the Union government issued notifications regarding amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, related to online gaming and spread of false and misleading information regarding the government.

- Kaushik Deka

The amended rules make it mandatory for intermediaries to not publish, share or host false or misleading information about the central government and makes the provision for a central body that can check and flag content related to the government. This has stirred a massive controversy. While the government said fact-checking is meant to combat misinformation, experts have raised concerns about censorship.

The Union ministry of electronics and information technology will notify the name of the government's fact check unit. Unlike what was proposed earlier, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) will not be assigned the job. No detail on the unit's structure and composition has been declared. "We have yet to take a decision on whether it will be a new organisation that has trust and credibility, or to take an old one and repurpose it in terms of a fact-checking mission," says Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union minister of state for electronics and technology.