We have seen an example of how dangerous fake news can be in the last few years. The government is also alert about the problems related to it and the government has also issued orders to internet companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter to deal with fake news. Many fact checkers in the country have stopped fake news from spreading. Now Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrashekhar said that if internet companies fail to remove false or misleading information from their platforms verified by fact checkers, they may lose privileged protection and will be prosecuted.
Fact check made mandatory
The government has mandated an organization appointed to deal with fake news to identify any false or misleading content related to the government. Along with this, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that there is a provision in the IT rules regarding misinformation that the Government of India will notify an organization and that organization will be a fact checker of government related content for all intermediaries.
He told that Google, Facebook, Twitter and other internet and social media platforms act as an intermediary. The Safe Harbor law protects intermediaries from legal action for any objectionable content posted online by their users. Chandrasekhar told that the IT Ministry will notify a unit which will flag false information posted online related to the government. Releasing the guidelines under IT Rules 2021, the minister said that the work on fact check is still going on.
He further added that maybe it could be a PIB fact checking unit which will be officially notified. We have not mentioned PIB fact check in detail as it is not notified under IT rule. In between, he has requested the government to inform a fact checker so that they can know about the false information.
