MIB agrees with proposed amendments to IT Rules, says will allow action against fake news

NEW DELHI, (ANI): The Union Ministry for Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is in agreement with the Ministry of Information and Technology’s proposed amendments to ask social media platforms to take down any such content that the Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check unit has labelled as “false” or “fake”.

“The intermediary shall inform its rules and regulations, privacy policy and user agreement to the user in English or any language specified in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution in the language of his choice and shall make reasonable efforts to cause the user of its computer resource not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that, deceives or misleads the addressee about the origin of the message or knowingly and intentionally communicates any misinformation or information which is patently false and untrue or misleading in nature [or 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]” an excerpt of the proposed draft rules released for public consultation reads.

Sources with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said that they would back the draft amendments, especially calling out ‘fake’ news.

“The Ministry has banned more than 100 such fake media including websites and YouTube channels but such action has been taken by invoking Section 69A of the IT Act. But the PIB Fact check doesn’t have the powers to do so. We now welcome such an amendment proposed so that action can be taken against fake news peddlers,” an official source told ANI.

IT Ministry had earlier initiated a public consultation on amendments proposed to the said rules in relation to online gaming, the last date for which was January 17, 2023. The last date for the same has now been extended to January 25, 2023. The Ministry shall also hold a consultation on the proposed amendment to rule 3(1) (b)(v) of the IT Rules with stakeholders on January 24, 2023.

“The draft amendments to IT Rules are in pursuance of our commitment to an Open, Safe Trusted and Accountable Internet. We have circulated amendments for consultation with stakeholders,” Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship said.

“As is our practice laid down by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, these amendments will also be put through open consultations – to reflect, discuss and deliberate on these amendments or any other such effective means through which we can prevent misinformation / patently wrong information circulated on the internet by state/non-state actors,” he added.

Earlier on January 12, the PIB’s Fact Check Unit (FCU) busted six ‘YouTube channels which were working in a coordinated manner and spreading false information in India. The Fact Check Unit released six separate Twitter threads having over 100 fact-checks to counter the fake news spread by these channels.

This was the second such action from the Unit under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Earlier on December 20, 2022, the Unit exposed three channels peddling fake news. (ANI)