All digital Platforms to rely on Indian administration’s fact check unit in India to avoid false information is raising concerns

India amended its IT law on 6^th April and prohibited Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms from publishing or sharing any false information concerning any business of the administration and are said to rely on New Delhi’s own fact check unit for authenticity and credibility. Digital rights group, Internet Freedom Foundation in its statement said, ‘The notification of these amended rules cement the chilling effect on the fundamental right to speech and expression, particularly on news publishers, journalists, activists, etc. The fact check unit could effectively issue a takedown order to social media platforms and even other intermediaries across the internet stack, potentially bypassing the process statutorily prescribed under the Section 69A of the IT Act 2000’.

India is known as a major overseas market for Facebook, Twitter and Google. According to the information more than $15 billion in India has been invested by these key new media firms which also made India, a last great growth market. Meanwhile, The Ministry of Electronics and IT justified the decision and termed it as already required corrections. ‘Intermediaries to make reasonable efforts to not host, publish or share any information which is patently false and untrue or misleading in nature’, it said.

Shortly after the news, few people opposed administration’s decision over twitter while others called it a significant step to stop fake news. But, Divya Rathi an activist for freedom of speech and expression criticized and called rather it should be specified. She said, ‘This is against freedom of speech and expression. Relying on administration’s fact check unit is like completely obeying to whatever they are providing us. Freedom of speech and expression is getting crushed under this rule.’ She added, specified rules need to be released because this whole fake news subject is also focusing on censorship of the press.

The rules clearly mentions that social media sites will have to take down such posts dealing with false information, and internet service providers will have to block URLs of such content. How it is going to affect Facebook, Twitter and other platforms ? According to Ms. Rathi, global platforms need to function democratically to get acknowledged for their unbiased and authenticity. ‘India’s amendment rule is going to affect these firms working in India, which will put online speech at risk. Since, India is not the first country in terms of passing restricted rules, hampering human rights in any way. There are several Middle East countries that are making people to follow such regulations but this is only turning media platforms into a controlled space. Countries are moving forward with developed policies, digital innovations and we are going back with rules and digital repression. I don’t see here, India is having positive impact globally after this amendment ’, she told EAT news.

Not identifying Press Information Bureau (PIB) as appropriate fact checking agency while passing the amendment is like completely sidelining any news agency in the matter of ‘trusted information’. PIB is the nodal agency of administration of India to disseminate information to print and electronic media about administration’s policies, programmes, initiatives and achievements. It uses several modes of communication like articles, press release, press notes, features, photographs, backgrounders, data base available on Bureau’s website.

Activist Divya Rathi calls it hampering Freedom of speech, whereas journalist Sourav works at Hindi newspaper and believes it otherwise. He said, ‘I have been working as a journalist for more than 20 years now, and presenting true facts is what journalism means. Administration’s decision on fact checking and misleading information will only make online space better and credible for other journalists or users to rely on. People are calling it and criticizing it for violating freedom of speech but they do not understand that false information about administration could lead to consequences that certainly they do not want to face.’ Furthermore he also said that fake news is a hole on online space which is instead of making it useful, corrupting it from inside.

Centre has also responded to the concerns around censorship and ‘assured that the government backed fact check body will work in a credible way, in a bid to address the concerns’. International media organizations like Al Jazeera, BBC pick information from PIB agency in context to India’s news  and how sensitive this whole decision has become for them as well to which Sourav firmly said, positive. ‘I am aware with the fact that limiting the information and allowing it to go through from a certain route is definitely questionable in journalism field. But sometimes, there are particular situation when administration decided to keep quiet and other media outlets gets filled with speculations, assumptions that eventually drives attention of global media platforms and forms a narrative. It looks negative on our side. So, I believe decision is going to be a positive outcome and after all, truth cannot be hidden’, he said.

The amendment implemented by Indian administration is unquestionably a disputed revision.