New Delhi: The Union government on Friday, April 21, told the Bombay high court that its fact-check unit is only aimed at the removal of false and misleading information related to government policies and programmes, and would not take down any opinion, satire or artist impression from the internet.
The affidavit filed by the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), in response to standup comic Kunal Kamra’s petition, sought to underline that the idea behind setting up a fact-checking unit is to prevent false information from weakening the public’s trust in democratic institutions, creating doubts about the intentions of the elected government.
Kamra had moved the court with a plea that Rule 3(1)(b)(v) of the Information Technology Rules (IT Rules) be declared unconstitutional. The said Rule obligates intermediaries (social media platforms) to make reasonable efforts to stop users from uploading or sharing “misinformation” or “misleading information”. The Rule under question was brought into force recently with an amendment to IT Rules 2021, which had only required intermediaries to just “inform” users of their obligation not to upload or share “patently false or misleading information”.
The standup comic feared that the Rule could potentially result in his content being taken down from social media arbitrarily or could result in his social media accounts being blocked. Calling for the said amendment to be quashed, he also feared that the intermediary could simply pull down his content if the government’s fact-check unit deemed his content as “fake”.
However, the government sought to underline that Kamra’s fears are unfounded, and wanted his plea dismissed. “It is reiterated that the role of the fact check unit is restricted to any business of the Central Government, which may include information about policies, programs, notifications, rules, regulations, implementation thereof, etc. The fact check unit may only identify fake or false or misleading information and not any opinion, satire or artistic impression,” the government’s affidavit said, according to Livelaw.
The government’s response to Kamra’s plea flowed in two parts. While calling the petition “premature”, it told the court that the proposed fact-checking unit and rules under question are yet to be notified. It also said “no directions to any intermediary have been given by the Answering Respondent (MeitY) to remove any information under the impugned Rule”.
A large part of the 130-page government affidavit delved into the adverse impact of fake news and issues that would arise if no action is taken to pull it down from social media platforms. It said people could act on speculative information without an official government announcement, and it would be in the public interest for “authentic information” to be ascertained. This, it said, is aimed at disseminating information after fact checking by a government agency “so that the potential harm to the public at large can be contained”.
To buttress its argument, the government said that public property was damaged during the last year’s protests against the Agnipath Scheme in various parts of the country due to the spread of fake news. It also cited another instance where a YouTube channel had apparently claimed that the President of India had ordered a ban on the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
The government also underscored that the number of people who consume news on social media platforms has gone up manifold in recent years necessitating a regulatory regime to prevent its misuse. It cited the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 according to which only 41% of people used traditional news platforms to consume news on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram 35%, and Facebook 37%.
“This implies that the majority of the news-related information consumed on social media across major social media platforms in India is produced by common users who may not possess the capabilities, resources and time to verify the information before publishing… while a common user may not have the available time and resources to verify the information, anti-social and anti-India actors/organisations have been using this feature of social media to deliberately publish and amplify false information, ” the government said.
Although the matter was supposed to be heard on Friday, April 21, it was postponed due to the unavailability of the bench, and the matter has been posted to be heard on Monday, April 24.