In a hearing on comedian Kunal Kamra’s affidavit against the amended IT Rules, the central government on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court that it will not notify the formation of its fact-check unit until July 5, Bar and Bench reported.
The amendment, notified on April 6, says social media companies and other intermediaries must take down content deemed fake by a government fact-check unit. To be precise, intermediaries are not permitted to “host, display, upload, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information in respect to any business of the central government that is identified as fake or false or misleading by such fact-check unit”. Intermediaries that don’t comply will lose their “safe harbour” protection in India.
