Policy Watch: Robust fact-checking or a Ministry of Truth?
The government intends to use the Press Information Bureau to identify fake news.
Dear member,
There are no longer any tickets available to the Political and Public Life Awards on 2 Feb. We look forward to seeing many of our Members there on the night. We also hope you join us for our next event on ayurveda and wellness on 16 February in London.
Number 10 Downing Street saw the first ever Pongal celebrations last week. Congratulations to the Tamil community in Britain for this historic occasion.
Read Member Sam Juthani’s latest blog on After the winter comes spring: the maturing digital asset market, which followed RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das’ comments a few days ago that crypto should be outright banned.
Fake news is a problem in India. That’s undeniable.
To tackle this, the government recently released a draft of the amended Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules) which, if implemented, would give the government and the institutions it approves, the power to determine what news is fake, resulting in censorship and removal from various social media platforms.
In other words, Rule 3(1)(b)(v) in its amended form leaves the control over labeling of something as ‘fake’ within the exclusive domain of the government or its selected bodies. Not journalists. Not fact-checkers. Not civil society. But politicians and civil servants only.
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