Congress demands withdrawal of proposed amendments under IT rules 2021

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera called out the PIB fact-check unit (FCU) for working on the Centre’s directions and not actually checking if the news that they declared was fake or not

The Congress on Thursday demanded the Centre to withdraw the proposed amendments made in the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

The matter will be taken up for discussion on January 25 by the ministry. (File image)

While charging the government for manipulating news content, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera called out the Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) fact-check unit (FCU) for working on the Centre’s directions and not actually checking if the news that they declared was fake or not.

“The BJP government at the Centre never thinks of solving problems rather it prevents these issues from reaching the news. Be it the Chinese incursion in Ladakh, the latest concerns that have been put forward by women on the wrestling federation, directing ISRO to not publicize reports on Joshimath, or interference in the Judiciary’s Collegium system the government is always trying to control the news. First, they tried to exploit the mainstream media through channel owners, and now we can see this shift towards the digital platform and social media,” Khera said at a press conference.

“The government has decided to discuss the amendments in the IT rules 2021 by 25 January 2023, but they were clever enough to suggest that any news report or content “identified as fake or false” by the Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) fact-check unit (FCU) can be taken down”, he said.

The ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) proposed an amendment on Tuesday that under the IT rules 2021 any intermediary – including news organisations, publishers, social media and online gaming platforms – must make efforts “not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share” content that may “deceive or mislead” the recipient, with respect to the origin or veracity of the information in the message.

The MeitY further suggested that any news that has been deemed ‘fake’ by the Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) fact-checking unit will have to be taken down by all platforms, including social media platforms.

The matter will be taken up for discussion on January 25.