Social Media Governance
The Editors’ Guild of India has issued a strong statement against what it calls “draconian rules” that will permit a government-appointed committee to label information relating to the Union government as “fake”, “false” or “misleading”. It can ask social media intermediaries like Facebook and Twitter, and internet service providers to take them down. The Guild states: “In effect, the government has given itself absolute power to determine what is fake or not, in respect of its own work, and order take down.” https://thewire.in/rights/it-rules-amendments-censorship-emergency ’ Guild has stated, but is censorship through other means.
As we move into election season, information, especially that available to millions through the Internet, will be crucial. With powers to label anything that exposes the hollowness of government promises as “misleading”, the government has entered the arena of direct control of information. This is precisely how censorship is defined – a system that checks the spread of information that is inconvenient to the rulers.
12/04/2023
Kunal Kamra Moves Bombay High Court Against IT Rules Amendment That Allows Centre To "Fact Check" Social Media Posts About Itself Sharmeen Hakim 11 Apr 2023 https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/bombay-high-court-kunal-kamra-challenge-it-rules-amendment-2023-fake-news-about-govt-social-media-posts-226017
During the hearing, Senior Advocate Navroz Seervai for Kamra submitted that the HC stayed a “much less chilling” Rule in 2021. The HC, in 2021 had stayed Rules 9(1) and 9(3) of the Information Technology (Guidelines For Intermediaries And Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules,2021 which mandate digital news media and online publishers to adhere to the "Code of Ethics" prescribed by the Rules.
The Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists deplores the Union Government’s attempt to regulate and censor news by a disingenuous and ambiguouslydefined new device: a “fact -check unit” to identify ‘fake or false or misleading online content’ in respect of “any business of the Central Government.”
...
On January 2, 2023, the government had invited public comments on draft rules.. . Just before the January 17, 2023 deadline for comments, the Government came out with an amendment to the Draft Rules.. Now, the notification replaces the PIB with a “fact-check unit”.
The BUJ asserts that such attempts constitute an unacceptable degree of interference in online content and spawn even more scrutiny, regulation and censorship of any information that the government arbitrarily deems is false, fake or misleading. None of these terms have been defined...
While fake news is a genuine global problem, the BUJ has scant confidence in this government’s efforts to tackle it, given its own track record in this sphere. Already, the present Indian government is amongst the national governments that send the highest number of take-down requests to social media platforms... The blocking of the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of the 2002 violence when he was Gujarat Chief Minister; raids on dissenting media houses and the invoking of draconian laws against journalists send out a clear message that independent and critical voices will face punitive action from this regime. ..
The “fact check unit” is one more nail in the coffin of meaningful democracy. -- General Secretary, Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists 11.04. 2023
PM himself certifying Arnab
Aadesh Rawal (@AadeshRawal) Tweeted:
https://t.co/TnM7QTvrLF https://twitter.com/AadeshRawal/status/1351139358489931778?s=20