Central Government designates PIB Fact Check Unit as official fact-checking body under IT Rules 2021 clause

Government of India today notified Fact Check Unit (FCU) under the Press Information Bureau (PIB) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) as the fact check unit of the Central Government.

In a Gazette notification issued today, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified the PIB FCU under the provisions of the sub-clause (v) of sub-rule (1) of rule 3 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. MIB and MeitY have been working closely on the subject to address the challenge of fake news, especially on social media.

Sub-rule (1) of rule 3 of IT Rules 2021 that elaborates on due diligence by an intermediary.

Clause (b) of this sub rule talks of the various cases wherein the 'rules and regulations, privacy policy or user agreement of the intermediary shall inform the user of its computer resource not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information’.

The sub-clause (v) is an information that deceives or misleads the addressee about the origin of the message or knowingly and intentionally communicates any misinformation or information which is patently false and untrue or misleading in nature (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)

The PIB Fact Check Unit started its operations in November 2019. The unit only takes up complaints related to the Government of India, its Ministries, Departments, Public Sector entities etc. Any matter that does not pertain to the Union Government is not taken up for evaluation/fact-checking by the Unit.