The Editors Guild of India has sent a representation to the Union Ministry for Electronics and Information Technology “expressing deep concerns on draft amendments to Information Technology Act 2021 rules,” which gives sweeping censorship powers to the Press Information Bureau to direct online intermediaries to take down content deemed ‘fake’. It has urged the ministry to expunge the said amendment. In a letter written on January 24, addressed to Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Guild says that the draft amendments were uploaded on January 17, 2023, for consultation, inviting responses by January 25, 2023. As per PIB’s own website, the bureau is the nodal agency of the Government of India to disseminate information to the print and electronic media on government policies, programmes, initiatives and achievements, the letter says. “Therefore it is amply clear that the role of PIB is limited to disseminating information to news organisations on affairs of the government. By this proposed amendment, sweeping regulatory powers are sought to be given to this agency, which is patently illegal and unconstitutional,” the Guild said. The amendment goes even further to include any “other agency authorised by the Central Government for fact checking”, making the ambit of possible government agencies with such draconian powers even wider, says the letter. Furthermore, the arbitrariness with which the amendment is even worded is evident by the absence of any rules and procedures for determining what is in fact ‘fake’ or, ‘false’, which are terms that are not. It notes that the Guild is “deeply concerned by this proposed amendment giving such sweeping powers to PIB”. At the outset, determination of fake news cannot be in the sole hands of the government and will result in the censorship of the press, it says, adding that multiple laws exist to deal with content that is found to be factually incorrect. “This new procedure basically serves to make it easier to muzzle the free press, and will give sweeping powers to the PIB, or any “other agency authorised by the Central Government for fact checking”, to force online intermediaries to take down content that the government may find problematic, the Guild wrote to Vaishnaw.
