The Editors Guild of India on Friday protested against the new notification by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) empowering Press Information Bureau (PIB) to fact-check any “fake, or false, or misleading” information about the information about Central Government in social media and direct the social media firms to take down contents.
Meanwhile the CPI(M) on Friday urged the Government to withdraw the amendments to IT Rules.
However, the Union Electronics & Information Technology Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday dismissed the criticism of the move as “deliberate misinformation”.
“The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly disapproves of the amendments to the IT Rules 2021 giving powers to the Press Information Bureau (PIB) to fact check any “fake, or false, or misleading” information about Central government and ask the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google to take them down.
“Such sweeping powers to the PIB are tantamount to outright censorship affecting all users of these platforms. This is anti-democratic and unacceptable. These amendments to the IT Rules must immediately be withdrawn,” said CPI(M) in a statement
