Fact Check Unit under Press Information Bureau; IT Intermediary Act 2021 should not be amended

Freedom of expression is essential to the survival of democracy. "The government will decide everything for the people and the people should not say anything about it' is the way of countries like communist China and so on. That is not something India can ever accept. Democracy in India is considered a meaningful democracy by political thinkers of the world because here citizens are free to criticize even the government. Likewise, an independent judiciary is another factor that nurtures and protects democracy.

Without the media, often referred to as the fourth estate, democracy would have become a system that operates under an iron curtain, hiding everything from the people. The media includes those who praise and criticize the ruling party. The most notorious form of censorship imposed on the media after independence was during the Emergency. Underlying all censorship is the idea that only those who admire and praise the government should survive. The Supreme Court must have stayed the notification of setting up a Fact Check Unit under the Press Information Bureau to verify the truth of the news about the central government in social media, because of the realization that it is not right to curtail the freedom of the media. The bench, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, stayed the notification, stating that it should be examined how this would affect freedom of expression. The allegation that the central government is taking such a step in the context of the election to silence the opposition voices, was raised earlier. The apex court has stayed the central notification pending the final decision of the Bombay High Court case in this regard. If the notification had been in place, internet platforms would have had to remove not just news but any content labelled fake by PIB.

This includes posts written by individuals and videos uploaded by individuals. The spread of fake news and offensive things with the malicious intention of creating division in society should be prevented. An impartial committee consisting of experts in various fields should look into such matters. This committee should be completely non-political. The PIB, which is part of the government itself, cannot be expected to conduct impartial fact-checking. They will only be fulfilling the wishes of the government. It cannot be said that this will not become another form of censorship reminiscent of the Emergency in the future. Therefore, the central government should abandon the move to amend the IT Intermediary Act 2021.