Supreme Court stays IT Ministry’s notification establishing fact check unit under PIB to identify fake news

Supreme Court stays Union Government's Press Information Bureau Fact Checking Unit, amid concerns over misinformation ahead of elections.

The Supreme Court on March 21 stayed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s March 20 notification establishing the Press Information Bureau Fact Checking Unit (PIB FCU) to act as a “deterrent” against the creation and dissemination of fake news or misinformation regarding the “business” of the Centre.

Weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on March 20 notified the Press Information Bureau’s Fact Check Unit (PIB FCU) as the designated body to flag misinformation about Central Government departments to social media platforms.

Under the IT Rules of 2021, social media platforms could lose the legal liability protections they enjoy for content posted by users, if they choose to keep notified misinformation available online.

Also read: ‘Censorship’ or ‘right to authentic information’?: The Bombay HC’s split verdict on Centre’s Fact-Check Unit | Explained

Given the contentiousness of the idea, the Union Government had held off on formally notifying the fact check unit as litigation was under way at the Bombay High Court challenging the provision. This month, however, the court declined to extend an interim stay to the government prohibiting it from enforcing the rules. 

The PIB Fact Check Unit had come under close scrutiny in the past, as it had sometimes disputed journalists’ work by relying on denials from the Ministries they have written about. The Editors’ Guild of India and comedian Kunal Kamra, who have challenged the IT Rules more broadly, on Wednesday approached the Supreme Court on the matter.

The fact check unit had in the past used its megaphone to dispute news reporting. Last week, the PIB Fact Check Unit declared that an Al Jazeera article calling the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 “anti-Muslim,” was “fake”. The fact check then went on to present two rejoinders to claims that the Al Jazeera article never made in the first place.