The government is considering multiple proposals for the design of its proposed fact-check unit, which will be mandated to ascertain the veracity of government-related information online, minister of state for electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday. The government is also still deliberating on who will be the unit’s members, he said.
Only news that is false will be labelled fake, he said when asked about checks and balances that prevent the unit from labelling any news critical of the government as fake.
Social media platforms cannot hide behind Section 79 safe harbour rules, the minister said.
“If a social media platform wants to play arbiter of the truth and ignore a fact-checking unit, it certainly has the option to do so, but it will have to defend that in a court of law against whoever is disputing their version of the truth,” Chandrasekhar…
