New Delhi
The Editors Guild of India (EGI), India’s premier body for protecting press freedom, has urged the government to reject a proposal to combat fake news on social media, saying it would be akin to censorship.
“Determination of fake news cannot be in the sole hands of the government and will result in the censorship of the press”, the editor’s group said in a statement on Wednesday.
The proposed amendment by the Ministry of Electronics and IT to Information Technology Rules, 2021, would bar social media platforms from hosting any information that the authorities identify as false in the latest measures by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
The draft amendment issued on Tuesday said that information deemed “fake or false” by the Press Information Bureau or by any other agency authorised for fact-checking by the government would be prohibited.
If information is deemed as such, social media platforms or other “online intermediaries” would have to “make reasonable efforts” to ensure users do not “host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share” such information, it added.
The government will hold a consultation with stakeholders to discuss the amendment on January 24, and has also invited “comments from stakeholders and general public” until January 25.
