The proposed amendments to the Information Technology Rules will formally bring X’s Community Notes, a user-generated fact-checking tool, under the remit of government regulation when they deal with news and current affairs, the Hindustan Times reported on Friday.
This will allow the government to seek the removal of community notes that challenge official claims.
On March 30, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting published draft amendments to the Information Technology Rules on its website. The amendments will allow the government to recommend issuing orders to block independent news creators if they are found guilty of grievances received by an inter-departmental committee.
The draft amendments note that any advisories to social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and X by the ministry would, if not complied with, affect their safe harbour provision under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act. Removing the status would mean that the platforms would be liable for the content in question.
An unidentified ministry official told the Hindustan Times that when community notes appear to deal with news, politics or public policy, they could also come under scrutiny if the expanded framework of the rules is approved.
To a question from the newspaper on whether a note correcting a minister’s claim and giving context to a policy matter would fall under the ambit of the rules, the official said: “Depends on facts in each case. But it potentially could.”
This comes against the backdrop of community notes being added to several posts by Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and ministers.
One such note had been added to a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at a business summit on February 14. The note, which alleged that government policies on social justice for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes violated the right to equality and the prohibition of discrimination, was deleted from the platform, according to the Hindustan Times.
Community notes on X are shaped by multiple users rather than being written by any one individual.
To a question on what the proposed amendments will mean for accountability, the ministry official was quoted as saying by the newspaper: “That would have to be determined in a court based on who all have contributed. And if X has a role in curation – they also have a liability.”
Civil society groups have raised concerns about the draft amendments, saying that they give sweeping powers to the ministry and are not anchored in the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation said that the proposed amendments “signal a decisive turn toward executive-led content control, with profound implications for digital rights, platform liability and democratic accountability”.
It described the proposals as a “massive expansion of unconstitutional censorship and regulatory power”.
The draft amendments are open for public consultation until April 14.
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