DC Edit | Fact checking: No role for State

The Bombay High Court has exorcised the spectre of an agency in the form of a fact checking unit (FCU) lording over the publication of matters relating to the Union government in social media by striking down the amendment the Modi government introduced last year to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The rule had enabled the Union government to create an FCU and demand the social media platforms to remove matters it found ‘fake, false and misleading’ if they were to retain the protection as an intermediary. Any media platform could be made to face prosecution.

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