NEW DELHI: The IT ministry has decided to defer its plans that would mandate social media companies and other platforms to take down information marked ‘fake or false’ by the fact-check unit of the Press Information Bureau (PIB), or any other agency authorised by the central government.
The reversal comes in the wake of protests by the Editors Guild of India, the Indian Newspaper Society as well as the News Broadcasters & Digital Association, which said that the move would give sweeping powers to the PIB while resulting in censorship of the Press.
Amid the outrage, junior IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Wednesday said that the government would hold discussions with stakeholders early next month before the proposal was implemented. He also said that consultations on the Digital Personal Data Protection Act was over and it was being processed for notification.
The government had last…
The reversal comes in the wake of protests by the Editors Guild of India, the Indian Newspaper Society as well as the News Broadcasters & Digital Association, which said that the move would give sweeping powers to the PIB while resulting in censorship of the Press.
Amid the outrage, junior IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Wednesday said that the government would hold discussions with stakeholders early next month before the proposal was implemented. He also said that consultations on the Digital Personal Data Protection Act was over and it was being processed for notification.
The government had last…
