Indian government mulls identifying and banning ‘fake’ news on social media platforms

The Union government of India will not allow social media platforms to circulate any information that is identified as false, as per the new draft proposal of the IT rules of India released this week.This is the latest step in the many measures introduced by the Narendra Modi government being perceived as efforts to control the big technological firms.

Any kind of information which has been marked as "fake or false" by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) or other agencies, which have been authorised for the purpose of fact-checking by the government or "by its department in which such business is transacted", will not be allowed on social media under the draft.

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After the information was identified as fake, "reasonable efforts" would have to be made by social media platforms or other "online intermediaries" to ensure the people do not "host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share" any such information, it stated.

The government had in October announced that it would set up a panel to hear users' complaints regarding social media firms' decisions related to content moderation. The social media firms already need to appoint executives and in-house grievance redressal officers to co-ordinate with officials of law enforcement.

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Repeatedly, the government has faced tussles with different platforms which failed to fulfil their demands regarding the removal of certain accounts or content which were allegedly spreading misinformation.

(With inputs from agencies)

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