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A fresh round of consultations on the proposed rules is likely to take place in February, a government official said.
“Since it is an entirely new proposal, a fresh consultation has to be done, which will happen in February. Only after that can the rule be notified, with changes, if any,” the official said.
Last week, the government introduced this clause bundled with a set of proposed changes to the IT Rules which were directed at regulating the online gaming industry.
A late-night update to the draft of the rules last week included the fact checking clause, and extended the window for stakeholder comments to January 25. The proposed changes to the rules for gaming companies were first released on January 2.
The government plans to release the final notification with respect to online gaming companies by January 31, the officials said.
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The fact check clause will not be a part of this notification however, sources added.
Consultations on the draft of the proposed gaming rules were completed last Tuesday.
Following the release of the rules, several public policy experts had said that the draft proposal could mean the government exerting more influence on the content that is shared on social media intermediaries.
The Editors Guild of India (EGI) had raised concerns about the move in an open letter to the Ministry of Electronics and IT last week, calling it as a move that would lead to government censorship. The EGI is an association of news editors in the country.
In its statement, EGI said this would “give the government a carte blanche to determine what is fake or not with respect to its own work” and “will stifle legitimate criticism of the government” which will “have an adverse impact on the ability of the press to hold governments to account.”
Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar had, however, told ET that the government was “open to hearing suggestions from media houses and other relevant stakeholders” if the rule impacted the work of media.
“The intention was to crack down on enemies of India, state actors, those with vested interests, child sexual abuse, and religious incitement, and not on the media. If media houses justify that the proposed amendments come in the way of their work, the government is willing to phrase the amendment in an alternate language," Chandrasekhar had told ET.
As per the proposed norms, intermediaries shall make reasonable efforts to cause the user not to host, display, upload, modify, transit, or publish any message that has been “identified as fake or false by the fact check unit at the PIB or other agency authorised by the government for fact-checking”.
The PIB, which is the official communication arm of the government, launched a fact-checking unit in November 2019. The agency takes suo motu cognisance of tweets and social media posts related to government schemes. The agency also responds to citizens' queries on claims and news related to government schemes.