The government will not allow social media platforms to host information it identifies as false, according to a draft proposal for new IT rules released this week.
This is the latest in a series of measures by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which are seen as an attempt to rein in big tech companies.
Any information classified as “false or false” by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) or any other fact-checking agency authorized by the government or “its department engaged in the conduct of such business” would be prohibited under the draft.
Once information has been identified as such, social media platforms or other “online intermediaries” would have to “make reasonable efforts” to ensure that users do not “host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update” such information or pass it on”. , it added.
In October, the government announced it would set up a panel to hear user complaints about content moderation decisions made by social media companies, which are already required to appoint internal complaints officers and executives to coordinate with law enforcement officials.
The government has also repeatedly been embroiled in clashes with various platforms when they failed to heed demands to remove certain content or accounts for allegedly spreading misinformation.
Last month, Indian government clogged 104 YouTube channels, 45 videos, four Facebook accounts, three Instagram accounts, five Twitter handles and six websites were blocked for spreading misinformation and threatening national security. Union Minister Anurag Thakur had then said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had issued instructions to block 1,643 user-generated URLs, including webpages, websites, posts and accounts from social media platforms, under the terms of Part II of the IT Regulations 2021 to October 2022.
