The Editors Guild of India is deeply concerned about the Modi government's initiative to curb 'fake' news

Fake News Image from google

The Editors Guild of India (EGI) has expressed deep concern over the Indian central government's initiative to prevent 'fake' news on social media. EGI expressed this concern in a statement last Wednesday.

The Union Ministry of Electronics and IT has proposed amendments to the 'Information Technology Act 2021' to prevent 'fake' news on social media.

Editors Guild of India (EGI) 

Photo: Taken from Facebook

The draft amendment was published on the Ministry's website on January 17. According to the draft amendment, any social media will not be able to publish any information or news that the central government of India identifies as 'fake'.

EGI has urged the Government of India to withdraw this draft amendment proposal of the 'Information Technology Act 2021'. They said the proposal would amount to media censorship.

EGI said that identifying fake news cannot be left to the government alone.

According to the draft amendment proposal, any information identified as 'false' or 'false' by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) or any other responsible department of the government cannot be published or disseminated in any social media or online medium. In that case the relevant platform shall take reasonable efforts to ensure that such information is not hosted, displayed, uploaded, modified, published, transmitted, stored, updated or shared.

EGI called on the government to hold meaningful consultations with stakeholders on the regulatory framework for digital media.

The central government of India will hold a stakeholder consultation on the draft amendment on January 24. Stakeholders and general public can give feedback on this till January 25.