The new unit to factcheck news on social media is aimed at building accountability around social media platforms and is not an attempt to restrict journalism or free speech, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, told businessline.

The Minister was speaking at the Breakfast with businessline event at ITC Gardenia, Bengaluru on Friday. According to the recent amendment in the IT rules, big tech platforms like Twitter and Facebook will have to take action against any content related to the government which gets flagged as misinformation or false by the Centre’s fact-checking unit.

“The fact-checking unit is only proposed to deal with social media platforms and there is no attempt to use it against media. This is an attempt to create accountability for these very powerful big tech platforms that have escaped accountability for years, because of the safe harbour immunity granted to them under Section 79 of the IT Act,” the Minister added.

In the last year two years, the Centre has taken down 1,100 accounts that were spewing misinformation about the government

In the last year two years, the Centre has taken down 1,100 accounts that were spewing misinformation about the government | Photo Credit: Rawf8

Safe harbour immunity meant that social media companies could not be held liable for any third-party content being posted or shared on their platforms. Further, talking about the need for fact-checking unit, Chandrasekhar said misinformation has become rampant across social media platforms. In the last year two years, the Centre has taken down 1,100 accounts that were spewing misinformation about the government.

‘A disservice’

“We are doing a disservice by conflating this legitimate effort to make sure our internet is safe and trusted, with an unnecessary focus on free speech. Because there is no restriction on free speech, there is no restriction of journalism,” the Minister said.

He noted that there are existing mechanisms for holding media organisations accountable. If today there is a story published by the media and a private entity does not agree with it, they can issue a rebuttal. Similarly, in the case of the government, if they don’t agree by a story, they can take defamation action in the court. “This mechanism is very well intact and none of that changes with the introduction of government’s fact-checking unit,” said Chandrasekhar.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW