Supreme Court bans PIB fact check unit
New Delhi: The Central Government has received another blow from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has stayed the Centre’s notification regarding the creation of a fact check unit under the Press Information Bureau (PIB). Commenting, the court said that this is violating the right to freedom of expression. Let us tell you that this fact check unit of the Central Government was created to identify and stop fake news about the government.
Chief Justice CJI D.Y. A bench headed by Chandrachud made it clear that the stay will remain in place until the Bombay High Court pronounces its verdict on the petitions challenging the validity of the amendments introduced in the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
Notification was issued on Wednesday
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Wednesday had notified the PIB FCU to tackle the challenge of fake news by proactively monitoring, detecting and countering disinformation campaigns, including on social media. The government said the FCU will combat misinformation on its policies, initiatives and schemes either suo motu or through complaints through various means including WhatsApp, email and SMS.
Bombay High Court Justice A.S. Chandurkar – the tie breaker judge – in an order passed on March 11 had refused to give benefit to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s statement in which he had said that the FCU would not be notified until the decision was made. Earlier on January 31, a division bench of the High Court had given a divided verdict on the petitions challenging the amended IT rules, after which the tie breaker judge was appointed.
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