Congress slams IT Rules amendment

The Congress party on Thursday demanded the Centre withdraw the new amendment in the draft IT Rules, which mandate social media companies to take down news articles that the Press Information Bureau (PIB) deems "fake". The party termed the amendment a "surreptitious assault on free speech". Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said IT Rules for the Narendra Modi government stand for "image tailoring rules. The opposition party demanded a threadbare discussion in the forthcoming Parliament session.

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On Tuesday, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) posted a modification to the draft Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which it had previously released for public consultation.

The addition in the "due diligence section" for social media intermediaries states that an intermediary, which includes social media companies and internet service provides, shall not publish information "identified as fake or false by the fact check unit at the PIB of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting or other agency authorised by the Central government for fact-checking".

If the Modi government 'fact checks' online news, who will 'fact check' the Union government, Khera asked. "Muzzling the Internet and censoring online content through PIB is the Modi government's definition of 'fact checking'," he alleged, adding the move smacked of the Orwellian 'Big Brother Syndrome'.