Amendment virtually censors the Press

The government of India has amended rules that cover fake, false or misleading news along with fact checking. The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) issued a statement against it...

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"The Indian Newspaper Society is deeply disturbed by the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023 (IT Amendment Rules, 2023), issued by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology on April 6, 2023.

As per the newly notified rules, the Ministry will enjoy 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 Central Government". The said fact-checking unit will also have the power to issue instructions to intermediaries, including social media platforms, Internet Service Providers and other service providers, to not host such content and take out the content if it has been published.