The Editors Guild of India is “deeply disturbed” by the “draconian” amendments to the Information Technology Rules that gave the government “absolute power” to determine fake news.
The new rules
The new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023, deal with information online and the government’s powers to take them down.
The Guild urged the government to withdraw the same.
“Fact checking unit”
It said as per the rules, the IT 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”.
As early as 2020, the website Newslaundry had highlighted several instances in which the the Press Information Bureau (PIB)’s fact-checking unit had not actually been on the side of facts, but instead stuck to the government’s line.
Absolute power
The government can also issue 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 take down,” the statement said.
Consultations with parties involved
The statement also criticises and calls “surprising” the fact that the Ministry 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.
The Guild again urges the ministry to withdraw this notification and conduct consultations with media organisations and press bodies,” it said.
Key statements missing
The note observes that there is no mention of what the governing mechanism for such a fact checking unit will be.
Nor does it have provisions for judicial oversight, the right to appeal, or how it proposes to adhere to the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court of India in Shreya Singhal v Union of India case, with respect to the taking down of content or the blocking of social media handles.
“At the outset, determination of fake news cannot be in the sole hands of the government and will result in the censorship of the press,” the Guild had said in January this year, following the release of the proposal.
“The ministry’s notification of such draconian rules is therefore regrettable.
Press freedom and ensorship
All this is against principles of natural justice, and akin to censorship,” it said.
These amendments will have deeply adverse implications for press freedom in the country, it noted.
The statement is signed by president Seema Mustafa, general secretary Anant Nath, and treasurer Shriram Pawar.
