The Union government has proposed a regulation that gives powers to nodal agency Press Information Bureau (PIB) to control fake news. The government has proposed an amendment to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. According to the proposal, platforms will have to remove content identified as fake or false by the PIB fact-check unit or another agency authorised by the government for the purpose.
After immediate airing of concerns on the proposed amendment, Minister of State for MeitY Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the government will hold discussions with stakeholders in February, before the proposal is implemented.
The Indian Newspaper Society has also expressed concerns over the proposed regulation.
The question raised by many is whether PIB being a government’s arm can act as a fact checker.
“The question has two parts – fact checking and who will do the fact checking.Fact checking is absolutely critical and it should be implemented across the board. Fake news and alternate facts have been the biggest bane of many platforms especially the social media platforms. Should there be pressure on platforms to do fact checks? Absolutely,” says Partha Sinha, President, The Times of India Group.
But Sinha believes the best method is always self regulation. “Unless the platforms themselves become serious about this, it will always remain a cat-and-mouse game,” he notes.
“The Government’s role is important but I believe the Ministry is sitting down with the stakeholders to decide how they want to go about it. If all parties can come together and arrive at a way to put a stop to fake news, it will be beneficial for society. I firmly believe, unless there is self regulation, unless the platforms themselves want to do it, it may not serve its purpose,” he adds.
Abhishek Karnani, Director, The Free Press Journal, observes, “Usually PIB does the fact check on a regular basis and we as media houses also do the same using our resources. It should be a collaborative effort between the two to counter fake news and eliminate all types of misinformation circulating on social media and messaging apps. We feel the bigger PIB fact-checking team should comprise experts from Government, media, IT, legal and the police so that the menace of fake news is immediately countered and does not gather the pace to spread like wild-fire.”
Rajeev Devaraj, Executive Editor, Mathrubhumi News, also believes that having a self-regulatory body would be ideal than entrusting the fact-checking job to a government agency like PIB.
“The Government will always have their interests to protect and that cannot be mixed with fact checking. The idea of having independent fact checkers and organisations is not a bad idea and these people or agencies can also be rated by the self-regulatory body that includes stakeholders from the media industry,” he explains.
