বাংলায় পড়ুন
Last Wednesday, the central government issued a notification regarding the establishment of a Fact-Checking Unit (FCU) to monitor content under the revised information technology rules.
According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Press Information Bureau’s Fact-Check Unit will now be designated as the central government’s Fact-Checking Unit.
In a related context, comedian Kunal Kamra recently approached the courts after the FCU’s formation was put on hold. His plea to keep the unit suspended until new regulations were formulated was dismissed by the Bombay High Court, which stated that granting permission for the establishment of a Fact-Checking Unit under IT rules would not result in any serious or irreparable damage.
It has been reported that a single bench of the Bombay High Court, headed by Justice A.S. Chandurkar, heard Kunal’s plea.
Rejecting Kunal’s plea, the judge noted that the country’s greater interest would not suffer until definitive rules were formulated, thus denying Kunal’s application for the third judge to hear the case.
Additionally, it is known that on April 6, 2023, the central government announced the Information Technology Rules, and in 2021, some amendments were announced. Among them was a provision stating that the checking unit could identify fake or misleading online content related to the government.
Furthermore, it has been learned that under these IT rules, if the FCU discovers any such content, it can inform social media intermediaries apart from the government and ask them to take urgent action.
