Key Points
Kamra has challenged a recent amendment to IT rules which allows the government to create the unit to identify fake or misleading news about the government on social media..
The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) on Wednesday assured the Bombay high court that it would not issue till July 10 a notification to set up a fact checking unit (FCU) which would identify fake or misleading news related to the Central government and its policies on social media platforms.ra..
Kamra has challenged the recent amendment to the IT Rules, which permits the Centre to form an FCU, saying that his stand-up act is based on political satire and hence, the powers that the FCU will be vested with will curtail his freedom of speech..
The rules cast an obligation upon intermediaries (social media platforms) to make reasonable efforts to cause users to not publish, display, upload or share information in respect of business of the Central government that is identified as fake, false or misleading by such FCU as the MeitY may specify, the petition said..
The Centre further claimed that the amended rules were only intended to make the intermediaries (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook) responsible to check (with due diligence) what is stated hereinabove (through the posts), without any obligation to either take it down or block the information/content..
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