Government to appoint agency for fact checking content on online platforms

In an amendments proposal to the IT Rules, the Centre plans to mandate a government-appointed organisation to identify any false or misleading content relating to the government. Minister for State in Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the government of India will notify an organisation and that organisation will be a fact checker of content related to the government for all intermediaries.

Minister for State in Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, "On the misinformation side, the IT Rules said that the government of India will notify an organisation and that organisation will be a fact checker of content related to the government for all intermediaries. Intermediaries who chose to keep that content will have to deal with a person who is aggrieved in the court of law. It is not mandatory that one has to take down what the notified organisation says but then you have to deal with it in the court of law."

The minister also said that if an intermediary chooses to not take down content after the fact checking unit asks it to, then the intermediary will lose safe harbor for that piece of content.

The government notification said, "After the word “nature”, the words “or, in respect of any business of the Central Government, is identified as fake or false or misleading by such fact check unit of the Central Government as the Ministry may, by notification published in the Official Gazette, specify” shall be inserted."