“The 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 Guild of India (EGI) has said this in a statement while expressing "deep concern" over the draft amendments to IT Rules 2021, which allows the Press Information Bureau (PIB) to determine the veracity of news reports.
What is this about? This amendment, which was uploaded by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) on their website on 17 January, says that if PIB terms anything as 'fake' it will have to be taken down by online intermediaries, including social media platforms.
Why does this matter? Expressing concern over this mechanism, EGI's statement added that multiple laws already exist to deal with factually incorrect content and:
"This new procedure basically serves to make it easier to muzzle the free press, and will give sweeping powers to the PIB, or any ‘other agency authorised by the Central Government for fact checking."