The government issued directions to block public access to 635 URLs, including 120 YouTube-based news channels
The blocking directions were issued under the provisions of Part-III of IT Rules 2021
IT rules 2021 does not require registration of any publisher of news and current affairs on digital media, the I&B minister added
Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur informed Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the government issued directions to block public access to 635 URLs, including 120 YouTube-based news channels, since December 2021 for publishing fake news and content not found to be in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of the country.
The blocking directions were issued under the provisions of Part-III of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rule, 2021.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) issued directions in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order in accordance with the provisions of Section 69 A of Information Technology Act, 2000, the minister said in a written reply.
“IT rules 2021 does not require registration of any publisher of news and current affairs on digital media, including those news publishers undertaking fact checking; only information under rule
18 needs to be furnished,” the minister noted.
The Indian government gave directions to block 30,310 URLs from 2018 to March 15, 2023 under Section 69A of the IT Act, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw informed the Lok Sabha earlier this year.
These web addresses included social media URLs, accounts, channels, pages, apps, web pages, websites, among others.
Last April, the Centre notified multiple amendments to the IT Rules, 2021 which empowers the government to flag and identify the spread of misleading information about it. It was also informed that a new entity will be notified to fact check all online content related to the government.
The new agency will operate under the purview of the IT Ministry. Besides, the amended rules also make it obligatory for social media intermediaries to not ‘publish, share or host’ fake news related to the central government. This move was widely criticised by the rights organisations due to concerns about the impact on press freedom.
The centre has been focussing on fact-checking for sometime now. It is reportedly mulling a provision under the proposed Digital India Act that could enforce a licensing regime for online fact-checkers.
