{"id":32918,"date":"2023-01-30T01:41:24","date_gmt":"2023-01-29T20:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=32918"},"modified":"2025-04-19T17:09:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T11:39:13","slug":"pib-fact-check-plan-on-hold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/pib-fact-check-plan-on-hold\/","title":{"rendered":"PIB fact-check plan on hold"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is Fake News and Laws to Punish Offenders?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is PIB Fact-check plan as proposed by the government?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are the concerns related to these proposals?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The government has decided to put its Press Information Bureau (PIB) fact-check plan on hold.<\/li>\n<li>The decision comes in the wake of protests by the Editors Guild of India, the Indian Newspaper Society as well as The News Broadcasters &amp; Digital Association.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is Fake News and Laws to Punish Offenders?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Meaning of Fake News:<\/strong> Fake news is referred to as those news stories that are false, fabricated, with no verifiable facts, sources or quotes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Types of Fake News: <\/strong>Satire or parody (no intention to cause harm), misleading content, imposter content, fabricated\/false\/manipulated content, etc.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Laws to control effect of fake news:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Information Technology (IT) Act, 2008. The offence related to <strong>electronic communication<\/strong> shall be punished under section 66 D of IT Act.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Disaster Management Act, 2005<\/strong>. Whoever makes\/circulates a false alarm\/warning as to disaster\/its severity\/magnitude, leading to panic shall be punished under the DM Act.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Indian Penal Code, 1860<\/strong>. Fake news creating false alarm in public, fake news creating riots and information causing defamation shall be punished under different sections of the IPC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>\n<strong>What is PIB Fact-check plan as proposed by the government?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, the government had released a modification to the draft Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.<\/li>\n<li>This modification proposed that any piece of news that has been identified as fake by the fact-checking unit of PIB will not be allowed on online intermediaries, including social media platforms.\n<ul>\n<li>PIB is the Centre\u2019s nodal agency to share news updates.<\/li>\n<li>Examples of online intermediaries include social media platforms, internet service providers, web hosting providers etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The condition was added to the <strong>list of due diligence criteria <\/strong>that intermediaries must follow in order to enjoy legal immunity from third-party content that they host.<\/li>\n<li>The proposal also suggested that content <strong>marked as misleading by any other agency<\/strong> authorised by the government for fact-checking or in respect of any business of the Centre will not be allowed on online intermediaries.<\/li>\n<li>Hence, according to the latest proposal, there is now the <strong>possibility of content takedowns<\/strong> because something has been <strong>recognised as fake news by the PIB.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bWhat are the concerns related to these proposals?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Empowers government to take down any news which does not suit its agenda<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Analysts have expressed concern that anything that contradicts government\u2019s stand might be used to justify content takedowns.<\/li>\n<li>The determination of fake news cannot be in the sole hands of the government as it will result in the censorship of the press.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Government is legislating to become a judge in its own cause<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>With this amendment, government is legislating to become a judge in its own cause.<\/li>\n<li>The government, through the proposed amendment, is taking a step to effectively muzzle criticism and even fair comment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>PIB, or an agency of the central government, is ill-equipped:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The identification of fake news requires the highest standards of fairness and due process to ensure factual accuracy of reports about government business.<\/li>\n<li>In this context, many analysts believe that PIB, or an agency of the central government, is ill-equipped to handle such issues.\n<ul>\n<li>PIB\u2019s fact-checking unit was set up in 2019 to verify news related to the government\u2019s ministries, departments and schemes.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It routinely flags content that it believes is false or misleading, <strong>yet it rarely explains<\/strong> why it has flagged a specific piece of information.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The PIB&#8217;s fact-checking unit has itself tweeted (occasionally) inaccurate information.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1)<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>What is Press Information Bureau (PIB)?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>The Press Information Bureau (PIB) is the nodal agency of the Government of India to disseminate information to the print and electronic media on government policies, programmes, initiatives and achievements.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>What are the functions of PIB?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>\u00a0PIB provides authentic information on policies and programmes of the Government of India to people. In fulfillment of this mandate, PIB performs the following functions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Disseminating information on policies and programmes of the Government of India;<\/li>\n<li>Providing feedback on how these policies and programmes have been received;\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Advising the Government on its Information, Education and Communication (IEC) strategy;<\/li>\n<li>Managing crisis communication and emergency response; and<\/li>\n<li>Providing media facilitation and accreditation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/business\/india-business\/faced-with-protests-govt-puts-off-pib-fact-check-plan\/articleshow\/97331431.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Faced with protests, govt extends timeline for PIB fact-check plan<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pib.gov.in\/factcheck.aspx#:~:text=Social%20Media%20Platforms%20ought%20to,content%20from%20getting%20uploaded%20%26%20circulated.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>PIB<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/technology\/meity-to-conduct-separate-talks-on-pib-fact-check-in-feb-mos-it-8402631\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian Express<\/u><\/a>\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government had proposed to take down any piece of information deemed fake by the PIB Fact Check Unit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}