The Tamil Nadu government has passed an order to set up a fact-check unit to counter fake news, communal misinformation and hate speech in news related to the state government across all media platforms.
A government order from the Tamil Development and Information Department on October 6, a copy of which is with HT, said that a Central Task Force will operate under the fact-check unit and will be led by a mission director.
The government has appointed Iyan Karthikeyan, who ran a fact-checking channel on YouTube called the “YouTurn”, as the mission director. He will manage a team of 80 people and report to the department of special program implementation headed by minister Udhayanidhi Stalin.
The move comes two months after neighbouring Karnataka announced setting up of a fact-checking unit to curb fake news on social media. Kerala too has had a fact checking unit under its public relations department for a few years.
“There is a growing concern of communal misinformation and hate speech,” an official in the government said.
{{/usCountry}}“There is a growing concern of communal misinformation and hate speech,” an official in the government said.
{{/usCountry}}“There is also misinformation being spread which is sensitive in terms of religion, caste and can disrupt the harmony in a society. There is also a rapid spread of health misinformation. It directly affects the scientific temper of the people. So the associated problems with the emergence of social media such as misinformation, fake news and hate speech has necessitated the creation of a Fact Check Unit.”
Karthikeyan posted on X (formerly Twitter) on November 1 that he has been appointed to this post of mission director. Karthikeyan did not respond to HT’s calls and messages. On X, he quoted United Nations secretary Antonio Guterres as saying that, “Addressing hate speech does not mean limiting or prohibiting freedom of speech. It means keeping hate speech from escalating into something more dangerous” and thanked chief minister M K Stalin and his son Udhayanidhi for the opportunity. “Fighting against Hatred is the job of everyone,” he said.
While some welcomed the move, they cautioned against the unit being used to regulate and control information. “This is an important task and responsibility to counter misinformation but it should not be used to target media that is critical against the state government,” said a journalist-editor of a news platform in Tamil Nadu seeking anonymity.
A right-wing political commentator Sriram Seshadri said that to have “any iota of trust”, the new initiative should start fact checking and take action against the “hate” speeches on Sanatana Dharma and against the Brahmin community. “Else it’s fascist curbing of free speech guaranteed by the Bharath Constitution,” he said. Udhayanidhi had stirred a nation-wide controversy in September calling for the eradication of Sanatana Dharma explaining that the concept discriminates based on caste and gender while for much of the northern states and the right wing it is a sacred set of duties followed by Hindus.
A “Central Task Force” will also be created to be based in Chennai which will act as a “fulcrum” on which the entire “superstructure” of Fact Check Unit, said the order from the government. There will be a district analysis team for each of Tamil Nadu’s districts with either two or three members depending upon the total number of taluks in the district.
The central task force will have 22 members who will be headed by the mission director. He will be assisted by a project director to coordinate functions such as content writing.
A joint director from the Information and Public Relations Department will coordinate public campaigns and awareness and also collect the information on fake news, mis/disinformation and hate speech to analyse the content received and fact checking, the government order said.
“The objective of Fact Check Unit is to act as a deterrent to the perpetrators/creators and disseminators of fake news and misinformation,” the government order read. “The unit will check the authenticity of information related to Government of Tamil Nadu across all media platforms. The veracity of information related to the announcements, policies, schemes, guidelines and initiatives of Government of Tamil Nadu shall be checked. This would be the official Fact-Check Unit of the Government for fake news, mis/disinformation and hate speech pertaining to the Government.”
Back in September 2021, the minister for Information and Publicity, P Saminathan announced in the legislative assembly for a ‘Social Media Cell’ to be set up in the department of Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR). This was upgraded into a ‘Media Hub’ to propagate the news about the various initiatives, policies and programmes of the DMK-led state government.