Fake News

Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday said amendments to the rules for determining fake news, false news and misrepresentation have been put through a consultation process, but need a lot of deliberations before being enforced. "We are looking towards making certain amendments in the entire election process. I cannot give any commitment because it is a consultation process which is going on. So the definition of fake news, false news and misrepresentation ... these are all important things which require a lot of deliberations. We are doing it," Rijiju told reporters here after inaugurating the Legal Aid office. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023 on Thursday. The 2023 amendments confer the power on the ministry to notify a fact-check unit of the Centre that will identify fake, false or misleading online content with respect to any business

"The fact-checking unit will flag misinformation and patently false information pertaining to the government," the Minister posted in a tweet

The latest notification by the Centre regarding new IT rules provides for appointing a fact-checking body for online content

Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter last year, there has been a spike in the number of misogynistic and abusive profiles

Deepfakes are videos creating delusion with the use of deep learning, other artificial intelligence techniques and photoshopping to make images of fake events

The Parliamentary panel's observations have been made in its action taken report on "Ethical Standards in Media Coverage", submitted in Parliament by the panel last week during the Budget session

The Editors Guild of India on Tuesday urged Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, to expunge the draft amendment to IT Rules 2021

Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for today

'Fake news' rules will damage press freedom

The Guild said that already multiple laws exist to deal with content that is found to be factually incorrect

The government on Wednesday asked YouTube to take down three channels for making false and sensational claims about various public welfare initiatives and spreading fake news. The three channels were declared as peddlers of fake news by the Press Information Bureau Fact Check Unit on Tuesday. "The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has directed YouTube to take down the three channels Aaj Tak Live, News Headlines and Sarkari Updates," an official source said Wednesday. Aaj Tak Live is not associated with the India Today Group, the government had clarified. The channels were using thumbnails and images of TV news channels and their anchors to mislead viewers into believing that the news shared by them was authentic, an official statement said on Tuesday. "These channels were also found to be displaying advertisements on their videos, and monetising misinformation on YouTube," it had said. The Fact Check unit of the Press Information Bureau said these YouTube channels spread ...

Claims about the security of mail ballots have grown in recent weeks, as have baseless rumours about non-citizens voting

After Elon Musk closed the Twitter deal of $44 bn, he informed about forming a content moderation council for Twitter which will certainly have diverse viewpoints

Confusion, concern, conspiracies, celebration. In the hours after Elon Musk took control of Twitter, reaction on the platform ranged from triumph to despair. While no immediate policy changes had been announced by Friday afternoon, that didn't stop users from cheering or criticizing what they expected to be a quick embrace of Musk's pledges to cut back on moderation in what he has said is an effort to promote free speech. Conservative personalities on the site began recirculating long-debunked conspiracy theories, including about COVID-19 and the 2020 election, in a tongue-in-cheek attempt to test whether Twitter's policies on misinformation were still being enforced. Popular right-wing pundits tweeted buzzwords such as ivermectin, and Trump won to see whether they'd be penalized for content they suggested would previously have been flagged. Ivermectin, a cheap drug that kills parasites in humans and animals, has been promoted by some Republican lawmakers and conservative talk sh

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said a piece of single fake news has the capability to snowball into a matter of national concern and emphasised the need to come up with technological advancement to check them. Addressing the 'Chintan Shivir' here, a gathering of home ministers of states to deliberate on issues of internal security, Modi stressed on the need to educate people about analysing and verifying any piece of information before forwarding it to others. "One should think 10 times before forwarding any information and verify it before believing it. Every platform has tools to verify any information. If you will browse through different sources, you will get a new version of it," the prime minister said. Pointing out the possibilities of social media, Modi said that one should not limit it to being the source of information. He said that a piece of single fake news has the capability to snowball into a matter of national concern. Modi lamented the losses that India ha

The Election Commission on Friday said its teams will constantly monitor social media platforms to check fake news in the upcoming assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh and respond immediately as it asserted it will not hesitate in taking criminal action wherever required. Announcing the dates for Himachal Pradesh assembly polls, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said the panel has "established social media teams to keep strict vigil on fake news being spread during elections. Social media will be monitored constantly and any fake news would be acted upon immediately penal actions can be taken too". Addressing a press conference, Kumar said keeping in view increasing incidents of "misuse of social media", social media platforms agreed to observe Voluntary Code of Ethics formulated by them in March, 2019. Citing an example of fake news about EVMs during elections, Kumar said the commission works so hard to conduct free and fair polls and then a particular news comes up and a

A sprawling disinformation network originating in Russia sought to use hundreds of fake social media accounts and dozens of sham news websites to spread Kremlin talking points about the invasion of Ukraine, Meta revealed Tuesday. The company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said it identified and disabled the operation before it was able to gain a large audience. Nonetheless, Facebook said it was the largest and most complex Russian propaganda effort that it has found since the invasion began. The operation involved more than 60 websites created to mimic legitimate news sites including The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom and Germany's Der Spiegel. Instead of the actual news reported by those outlets, however, the fake sites contained links to Russian propaganda and disinformation about Ukraine. More than 1,600 fake Facebook accounts were used to spread the propaganda to audiences in Germany, Italy, France, the U.K. and Ukraine. The findings highlighted both the promis

India also reported prominent acts of cyberbullying such as spreading false rumours at 39%, being excluded from groups and conversations at 35% and name calling at 34%

A total of 130 cases of "hate news" were reported to social media platforms between the 2019 Lok Sabha election and the latest round of Assembly polls in five states held earlier this year

With this partnership, Meta will have 11 fact-checking partners in India, making it the country with the most number of third party fact checking partners globally