Congress, CPI (M), EGI demand withdrawal of new fact-check rules

“Such sweeping powers to the PIB are tantamount to outright censorship affecting all users of these platforms.  This is anti-democratic and unacceptable.  These amendments to the IT Rules must immediately be withdrawn. If these companies refuse to follow the government order, they will lose their “safe harbour immunity” that guarantees them protection against any illegal or false content posted by users of these platforms,” a CPI (M) politburo statement said.

New Delhi: The Congress, CPI (M) and the Editors Guild of India on Friday slammed the Centre over new “fact-check” rules for online platforms. They are afraid of dissent, of questions and of anybody, who can corner them on the facts,” Congress media chairman Pawan Khera said. “The new rules are on online platforms where the PIB will decide what is fake and what is not. I am sure all of us will show the resilience in our democracy and ensure that this does not get applied to all of us,” he said. He was reacting to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023 (IT Amendment Rules, 2023), notified by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on April 6, 2023.

The CPI (M) demanded the withdrawal of the amended rules. “Such sweeping powers to the PIB are tantamount to outright censorship affecting all users of these platforms. This is anti-democratic and unacceptable. These amendments to the IT Rules must immediately be withdrawn. If these companies refuse to follow the government order, they will lose their “safe harbour immunity” that guarantees them protection against any illegal or false content posted by users of these platforms,” a CPI (M) politburo statement said.

The National Editors Body, too, expressed concern over the new rules. “The Editors Guild of India is deeply disturbed by the amendments. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has introduced amendments to the IT Rules that will have deeply adverse implications for press freedom in the country. As per the rules, the ministry has given itself 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”, and with instructions to ‘intermediaries’ (including social media intermediaries, Internet Service Providers and other service providers), to not host such content.

In effect, the government has given itself absolute power to determine what is fake or not, in respect of its own work, and order takedown. The so-called ‘fact-checking unit’ can be constituted by the ministry, by a simple “notification published in the Official Gazette”,” an EGI statement said. Furthermore, the EGI said that “there is no mention of what will be the governing mechanism for such a fact-checking unit, the judicial oversight, the right to appeal, or adherence to the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal vs Union of India case, with respect to taking down of content or blocking of social media handles. All this is against principles of natural justice, and akin to censorship.”

“What is further surprising is that the ministry has notified this amendment, without any meaningful consultation that it had promised after it withdrew the earlier draft amendments it had put out in January 2023. These had given sweeping powers to the Press Information Bureau (PIB), which was universally criticised by media organisations across the country, including the Guild. The ministry’s notification of such draconian rules is therefore regrettable. The Guild again urges the ministry to withdraw this notification and conduct consultations with media organisations and press bodies,” it said