Editorial: When the cart draws the horse

NEW DELHI: Last week, the Bombay High Court struck down the amended Information Technology Rules, 2023, which empowered the Centre to set up a fact check unit (FCU) to identify fake, false and misleading information about the government and its establishments on social media. Describing the legislation as an infringement on the right to equality and freedom of speech/expression, the tie-breaker judge AS Chandurkar remarked that 'The FCU in a sense is an arbiter in its own cause", mirroring the view of a previous ruling which was critical of the law's vagueness and disproportionality.

As per the new IT rules, the government could ask platforms to remove any content/news related to the business of the Centre that was flagged off by the FCU as misinformation. An organisation appointed by the government would serve as the arbiter. In the event of intermediaries failing to comply with the organisation's decision, they would lose their safe harbour status under Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000, something seen as having a chilling effect on such individuals and groups. One might recall that it was last year that the Ministry of Electronics and IT established the FCU by amending the IT Rules, 2021.

The FCU has faced criticisms since its inception, especially from the likes of political satirists and media outlets. Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra had filed a petition in Bombay HC against amendments to the Act, calling them arbitrary, and violative of fundamental rights'. Later, the Editors Guild of India and the Internet Freedom Foundation joined his plea. The Bombay HC had also observed back then that the IT rules amendment did not seem to offer any protection or immunity to parody and satire. It was an interesting observation seen in the context of news media, which has the weighty responsibility of holding a mirror to society.

Interestingly, the judge has questioned the rationale of ‘fact-checking’ any news bite pertaining to the Central government when it is presented in digital form (i.e. on social media), but not opting for the same when such information is in print. Also, the restriction was applied only to information about the Centre, and not other types of information. The discourse around fact checking is emerging at a telling moment in history when misinformation has turned into the scourge of cyberspace in election-bound nations across the world.

Just a few weeks ago, at the pre-poll debate, US ex-President Donald Trump, in his arguments against Vice President Kamala Harris deployed rhetoric founded on misinformation that was amplified by members of his MAGA brigade. These involved allegations of Haitian migrants eating pets belonging to the residents of Springfield, and abortion laws which allowed the termination of a full-term baby. These were promptly fact-checked by the mediator, before Trump was allowed to resume his diatribe.

Closer home, we have been inundated with news reports pertaining to the Tirupati laddu controversy. The allegation of adulteration stemmed from the highest echelons of polity in Andhra Pradesh, and it’s something fact checkers are losing sleep over. Sharpening the pitchforks to pillory comedians, cartoonists, satirists and other such troublemakers might be par for the course, for ‘concerned’ administrations. But they must also harken back to the Bard of Avon’s epic tragedy King Lear, where The Fool berates Lear by saying, “I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are. They'll have me whipp’d for speaking true; thou'lt have me whipp’d for lying.”