‘Centre best placed to answer questions about its policies’: Minister defends fact-checking panel

New Delhi:

India’s Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw today said there is a need for the government to set up its own fact-checking unit as it is best suited to combat misinformation about welfare policies and other schemes. His comments came just days after the Supreme Court halted the government’s move to establish its own fact-checking unit.

“Facts are facts. Opinions are opinions. Recently, Opposition parties posted that passenger numbers on Indian Railways have dropped by 80 per cent. You have to ask the Railways what is the exact number to address this misinformation,” Mr. Vaishnaw said on NDTV Indian Today The Person of the Year Award is presented.

“If there is a question related to the central government, who is best placed to answer that fact? The central government. Our advice is limited to facts and figures relevant to the work of the central government,” Mr Vishno added.

The fact-checking panel provisions are part of the amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, proposed by the Center last year.

According to the regulations, if the department discovers or learns of any post that is false, false or contains misleading facts about government business, it will report it to social media intermediaries. Once such a post is flagged, the intermediary may choose to remove it or issue a disclaimer. If the second option is adopted, the intermediary may face the risk of legal action.

But the move was challenged in the Supreme Court over censorship concerns. The petitioners, stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra and the Editors Guild of India, said the new rules would restrict users from freely expressing their opinions on social media. They have said it is easy for social media intermediaries to remove posts flagged by government fact-checking units to avoid legal trouble.