New Delhi: At a time when there is increasing concern among citizens and parliamentarians alike on about the Press Information Bureau getting powers to order the takedown of content, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MI&B) on Tuesday, March 21, submitted in the Lok Sabha that fact-checking will be done by the officers of PIB and “no separate budget has been allotted” for the purpose.Syed Imtiaz Jaleel of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and T. Sumathy of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had asked “whether the Government has prepared any standard operating procedure/manual to conduct the fact checking” and “whether the PIB has employed/hired the domain experts/agencies to carry out the fact checking”. The minister of state for information and broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur submitted that the Fact Check Unit (FCU) was set up under PIB in November 2019.He added that the FCU, which comes under his ministry, “takes cognizance of fake news — both suo-motu and by way of queries sent by citizens on its portal or through e-mail and WhatsApp.”Thakur said “the unit responds to the relevant queries with correct information relating to subject concerning the Central Government” and maintains a Twitter account – @PIBFactcheck.The minister said the PIB Fact Check Unit has so far responded to 37,000 actionable queries and has busted over 1,160 “fake news”.Earlier, in January this year, MeitY had invited comments from stakeholders and the general public on an amendment proposed to rule 3(1)(b)(v) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“IT Rules”) with respect to obligations of social media and other intermediaries regarding sharing of information which is “patently false and untrue or misleading in nature”.The Wire had then reported how the draft amendment to the IT Rules 2021 meant that any news that has been deemed “fake” by the PIB’s fact-checking unit will have to be taken down by all platforms, including social media platforms.There were also concerns that the vague definition of “fake news” makes the ambit of the proposal much larger and the amendment’s language suggests that in the future, it may not be just the PIB’s fact-checking unit but also other authorised entities that could mark news items as fake. The provisions said that content that has been marked as misleading by “any other agency authorised by the government for fact-checking” or “in respect of any business of the Centre” will not be allowed on online intermediaries.The proposal had startled many not only because it meant that government will have the final word on what may or may not be “fake”, but also because the PIB’s fact-checking unit, had earlier been accused of acting as a government mouthpiece without actually paying attention to the facts.In May 2020, Newslaundry highlighted several instances in which the PIB’s fact-checking unit had not actually been on the side of facts, but instead stuck to the government’s line.Pratik Sinha, founder of the fact-checking website AltNews, had told Newslaundry, “The issue is with what the PIB Fact Check Unit decides to verify. If you look at fact checks by the PIB, they are meant to salvage the government’s image barring few exceptions. They selectively fact check things which are political in nature and are critical of the ruling BJP.”Also Read: RTI Exposes Government’s Fraudulent Fact-Check MechanismEditors Guild, experts have raised concerns over proposed amendmentsThe proposed changes had also caused consternation with the Editors Guild of India, an association of editors of leading publications in the country. It had noted that “determination of fake news cannot be in the sole hands of the government and will result in the censorship of the press”. Laws exist to deal with content that is found to be factually incorrect, the guild said, adding that the new procedure “basically serves to make it easier to muzzle the free press, and will give sweeping powers to the PIB… to force online intermediaries to take down content that the government may find problematic.”“Further,” the Guild held, “the words “in respect of any business of the Central Government” seems to give the government a carte blanche to determine what is fake or not with respect to its own work. This will stifle legitimate criticism of the government and will have an adverse impact on the ability of the press to hold governments to account, which is a vital role it plays in a democracy.”In February this year, Tejasi Panjiar and Prateek Waghre of the Internet Freedom Foundation explained the many concerns with giving PIB the ability to take down ‘fake’ news, pointing out that apart from executive overreach, the proposed amendments suffer from ambiguity in definitions and violate the Supreme Court’s Shreya Singhal judgment.Centre moving ahead with proposalDespite the misgivings around the proposed amendment, the Union government has been moving ahead on the proposal.Recently, a report in the Economic Times noted that when “asked what happens to social media intermediaries who do not agree with PIB fact checking a piece of content and do not take down content, IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “Any intermediary that does not comply with one or any of the due diligence obligations under IT rules will lose their immunity status as rule 7 will apply.”
