Central government revises Information Technology Rules to crack down on fake news

Central government revises Information Technology Rules to crack down on fake news

Earlier, it had drafted amendments related to online gaming

The Central government has proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules of 2021. It seeks to prohibit the circulation and uploading of news content "fact checked" and declared fake by the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has published a draft notification on its website, proposing the addition of a para to a clause in Rule 3 of the IT Rules.

The new Rule 3(1) (b) (v) will read:

Due diligence by an intermediary:

An intermediary, including [social media intermediary, significant social media intermediary and online gaming intermediary], shall observe the following due diligence while discharging its duties -

- The intermediary shall inform its rules and regulations, privacy policy and user agreement to the user in English or any language specified in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution in the language of his choice and shall make reasonable efforts to cause the user of its computer resource not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any 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 is identified as fake or false by the fact check unit at the Press Information Bureau of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting or other agency authorized by the Central government for fact-checking or, in respect of any business of the Central government, by its department in which such business is transacted under the rules of business made under clause (3) of article 77 of the Constitution]

Previously, the clause only covered deceiving or misleading the addressee about the origin of the message or knowingly and intentionally communicating any misinformation or information, which was patently false and untrue or misleading in nature.

Early this month, MEITY introduced draft amendments to the IT Rules, 2021 on online gaming. The feedback from the public was invited by January 17, but now the date has been extended to January 25.