Supreme Court stays govt's fact-check unit notification; Court cites "freedom of speech"
The order came a day after the ministry of electronics and information technology notified the fact-checking unit after the Bombay High Court refused a stay on it.
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The Supreme Court on March 21 stayed the implementation of amendments to the information technology rules that allowed a fact-check unit to be set up to verify news items appearing in media about the government, saying it involved serious constitutional questions, Moneycontrol reported.
The order comes a day after the ministry of electronics and information technology notified the fact-checking unit after the Bombay High Court refused a stay on it.
"We are clearly of the view that the notification of the Union government dated March 20, 2024, would need to be stayed," a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said, as reported by Moneycontrol. The case involves serious constitutional questions and the issues related to fundamental rights would call for analysis by the high court. The rules will be on hold till the Bombay High Court disposes pleas that challenge the formation of the fact-checking unit, it said.
The IT Rules (amendment), 2023 says that intermediaries like social media platforms will have to make “reasonable efforts” to ensure that users do not upload information about Central government “identified as fake or false or misleading”.
An organisation appointed by the government will be the arbiter of such content, and if intermediaries do not comply with the organisation's decision, they may lose their safe harbour status, it said.
The order was passed by a three-judge Bench on petitions filed by the Editors Guild of India (EGI) and stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra. Internet Freedom Foundation assisted stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra in filing the petition.
The petition also argued that the amendments violate the right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 and also didn’t pass the reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech and expression test. It also violated the right to practice, trade or profession.
The Government of India had on March 20 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.
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.
