The Indian government is planning to set up a network of fact-checkers for online content to flag misinformation that is not related to the government.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT has asked social media giants to submit their inputs on building the self-regulatory body and the criteria that should be followed to determine who should be a “trusted” fact-checker.
During a closed-door meeting, representatives from companies such as Alphabet, Meta, Sharechat, Snap, and Telegram were present. The proposed network of fact-checkers will only have the agency to flag misinformation not related to the government, and the Press Information Bureau’s fact-checking unit will flag “misinformation” related to the Centre.
The government is considering collating a list of all the links deemed to be fake news, which will then issue orders to block those links. The ministry has also proposed changes to the Information Technology Rules, 2021, which means that not just social media platforms but internet service providers and web hosting providers will have to follow the rules if notified of this provision.