The Bombay High Court on Friday said words such as “fake, false and misleading” that are part of the new Information Technology (IT) Rules are “problematic”.
A Division Bench of justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by political satirist Kunal Kamra, the Editors Guild of India and the Association of Indian Magazine and regional channels challenging the constitutional validity of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023. The new Rules require social media intermediaries to censor or otherwise modify content that relates to the Central government if a government-mandated fact-checking unit (FCU) directs them to do so.
Senior advocate Navroz Seervai appearing for Mr. Kamra argued that the Ministry of Electronics and IT themselves say that they have an effective mechanism called Press Information Bureau which according to them works very well, yet the new Rules has FCU. No one would know if statements were true or false and the FCU would decide.
