SC stays centre's notification on setting up of Fact Check Unit to identify fake news

New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India on Thursday stays the operation of the March 20 notification of the Fact Check Unit (FCU) by the Centre government under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules 2023.

Supreme Court stayed the notification till the Bombay High Court decides the challenges to the Information Technology Rules Amendment 2023.

The Centre on Wednesday notified the fact check unit under the Press Information Bureau (PIB) to monitor online content pertaining to the government for accuracy.

The notification came days after the Bombay High Court declined to restrain the Centre from notifying the unit. The petition was filed by stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra and the Editors Guild of India.

The petitioners have moved the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court verdict and the matter is expected to come up for hearing on Thursday.

In April last year, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) promulgated the 2023 Rules, which further amended the Information Technology Rules, 2021.

Under the new rules, if the fact check unit comes across or is informed about any posts that are "fake", "false" or contain "misleading" facts pertaining to the business of the government, it would flag it to the social media intermediaries.

The online intermediaries would then have to take down such content if they wanted to retain their "safe harbour" (legal immunity against third-party content).