Ministry seeks to tweak IT rules, remove content PIB marks as 'fake news' on social media

Representative image.

News identified as fake or false by the Press Information Bureau's fact check unit needs to be removed from social media platforms, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a proposed amendment to the Information Technology Rules 2021.

The IT ministry introduced these draft amendments to the IT Rules 2021 on Tuesday, as it extended the time for public consultation on regulations for online gaming platforms.

The recent proposal introduced in the section 'Due Diligence by Intermediaries and Grievance Redressal Mechanism' of IT Rules 2021, says that intermediaries "shall make reasonable" efforts to not "host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit" such information on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

The intermediaries are required to do the due diligence for them to enjoy safe harbour provisions of the IT Act 2000, wherein intermediaries enjoy legal immunity from third party content they host.

The draft amendment, while giving scenarios in which the content has to be pulled down from social media platforms, said that if it is "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 or in respect of any business of the central government, by its department in which such business is transacted under the rules of business made under clause (3) of article 77 of the Constitution".

This proposed amendment is significant and can have far-reaching effects, in terms of censorship of news items.

"While we will study these updated amendments further, we are disappointed that significant changes to an ongoing consultation process have been made on the final day when many stakeholders would have submitted their comments," digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation said in a statement.

"Additionally, this could also severely impact trust in any upcoming public consultations in 2023. Continuing piecemeal amendments as we wait for a ‘Digital India Bill’ without the articulation of clear vision or plan are matters of great concern," IFF said.

In 2022, Twitter went to court against several of IT ministry's blocking orders. Blocking orders are issued by the ministry for social media intermediaries to suspend an account or withhold content from the platform.

In its petition, Twitter had said that several of the URLs contained in MeitY's blocking order contained "political and journalistic" content and that blocking of such information would be a violation of freedom of speech guaranteed to users of the platform.