Modi government’s move to set up new fact-check body shows its ‘deepest insecurity’, says Opposition

Several Opposition leaders on Friday said that the Central government’s decision to set up a new fact-checking body to flag claimed misinformation about itself shows the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “deepest insecurity”, The Indian Express reported.

Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook and other intermediaries will have to take down any information marked as “fake or misleading” by the proposed entity if they want to retain the “safe harbour” protections, which give them legal immunity against content uploaded by their users.

The formation of the body was notified on Thursday as an amendment to the Information Technology Rules of 2021.

Congress communication chief Jairam Ramesh on Friday asked the Modi government to withdraw the move and accused it of being the “biggest producer of fake news in India” along with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Another Congress leader Pawan Khera asked how the government can be the judge, jury and executioner. “This government fears dissent,” he said at a press conference. “They are afraid of anybody who can corner them with their questions and their facts…We must oppose this with all our might so that this does not become a rule.”

Former Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said the Centre’s decision to set up a body to check news about itself amounts to imposing censorship.

“It is bizarre that the government will be the final arbiter without any appeal, without even following the safeguards laid down in the Shreya Singhal case by the Supreme Court as to which critique of the government is fake and which is genuine,” the Lok Sabha MP told The Indian Express. “These rules will never stand the Test of Article 19 notwithstanding the reasonable restrictions.”

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) sought the withdrawal of the amendments to the IT Rules. “This is totally anti-democratic and unacceptable,” the party’s General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said in a statement.

Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha said that such decisions send a signal about the government and its intent not only in India but abroad as well. “You are hosting G20,” he added. “I am sure this does not go down well.”

Jha urged the government to be wary about anything that is undemocratic in nature. “Are you going to force people to take down anything which is unpalatable to you, which actually challenges your kind of politics?” he asked.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien accused the BJP of being the “master of creating fake news” and said it now wants to regulate content.

Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, however, dismissed the criticism of the Opposition and alleged that the parties were spreading misinformation.

“There are no sweeping powers – neither is it draconian,” the minister of state for electronics and information technology wrote on Twitter.

He added: “[Even as opposition parties] try hard to misrepresent and lie about our serious work at creating a misinformation-free Internet in India whilst protecting fundamental rights, let me remind you of your joint terrible draconian record on free speech, example the use of Section 66A of IT act – where young cartoonists were sent to jail for cartoons.”

On Thursday, the minister had said that the new fact-checking unit will be housed within the Press Information Bureau.

The bureau already has a fact-checking unit, created in 2019, which has frequently faced criticism for merely issuing denials about news articles critical of the government rather than explaining why they are misleading. It has even put its “fake news” stamp on accurate articles that are critical of the government.

Chandrashekhar had claimed this will not be the case anymore. “When we notify the agency, we will certainly be very clear that any doubts in the mind of people that the power will be misused on behalf of the government will be addressed,” he added.