Response to Draft Amendment to the IT (Intermediary Guidelines And Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021

This is a submission made to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India in response to the draft Amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 . Among many things, the Amendment required internet intermediaries to prevent its users from posting any information that is identified as ‘fake’ or ‘false’ by the fact check unit at the Press Information Bureau (PIB) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting or other agencies or departments authorized by the Central Government for this purpose. In our comments to the Ministry, we raised doubt about the effectiveness of fact-checking to solve the problem of online fake news without also addressing the attention economy logic of social media platforms and their affordances of virality and algorithmic amplification of false and misleading content. We also recommended that the fact-checking system should have clear, transparent procedures, including publication of decision of the fact-checking body, the opportunity to be heard for the affected parties, and judicial review, in order to steer clear of over-regulation of online content by the State.