Political slugfest erupts over amended IT rules

Opposition parties on Friday slammed the government for suppressing dissent and with the recently amended IT rules that ask intermediaries, such as Facebook and WhatsApp take down any content that has “fact-check” or marked as false/fake by a government body, calling the changes “undemocratic and draconian”, but the minister of state of electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrashekar alleging that the parties were spreading “misinformation”.

Also read: Centre notifies changes to IT rules, 2021

“How can I be the judge, jury & executioner,” said senior Congress leader Pawan Khera at a press conference on Friday, just a day after the new rules were notified. “This is the way (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi government works. This government fears dissent. They are afraid of anybody who can corner them with their questions and their facts… PIB (Press Information Bureau) can’t decide what is fake news and what isn’t. We must oppose this with all our might so that this does not become a rule.”

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) sought that the rules be withdrawn in a statement issued on Friday. “Sweeping powers to the Press Information Bureau to censor content posted on social media platforms is draconian, anti-democratic and unacceptable. Censorship and Democracy cannot coexist. Immediately scrap these amendments to IT Rules,” CPI(M) general secretary Sitharam Yechury tweeted.

Rebutting the claims, Chandrashekar said on Twitter:“There are no sweeping powers, neither is it draconian.

“IT rules already have provisions from Oct 2022, which mandate Social Media intermediaries to not carry certain types of content if they are to have legal immunity under Section 79 (which provides from prosecution for third party content) of IT act,” he added.

He added that there will be a new credible fact checking unit for all government related content. “(Even as opposition parties try) hard to misrepresent and lie about our serious work at creating a misinformation-free Internet in India whilst protecting fundamental rights, let me remind you of your joint terrible draconian record on free speech, example the use of Section 66A of IT act - where young cartoonists were sent to jail for cartoons,” Chandrashekar said.

Also read: ‘Disturbed’ by recently amended IT rules: Editors Guild of India

The ministry notified amendments to the IT rules, 2021 on Thursday, inserting a clause that will need intermediaries — social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook — to ensure users do not post content about the Union government that has been “fact checked” by an approved body. The rules also formalised regulation of online gaming, setting up a self-regulatory body for the industry. The government said the measure on fact-checking was meant to combat misinformation.