Only Centre can validate facts related to it: Ashwini Vaishnaw on PIB’s fact check unit

New Delhi: The Centre is best suited to determine whether a particular fact related to it is correct or wrong, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday while making the government’s stand clear on the PIB’s Fact Check Unit.

He was replying to a supplementary query during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha related to the Supreme Court’s stay on the Centre’s notification on setting up a fact-checking unit.

“The amendment in the IT Intermediary Rules which has been stayed by the Supreme Court, that is still under contest but the fundamental principle is, our point is, anything related to the government of India, only the government can say whether it is a correct fact or a wrong fact. That is our stand,” Vaishnaw, the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, said.

The Supreme Court in March this year stayed the Centre’s notification on setting up a fact-checking unit under the Press Information Bureau (PIB) to identify fake news about the Union government.

The Fact Check Unit was notified on March 20 under the Information Technology Rules, 2021, by the Ministry of Electronics and IT. A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud set aside the March 11 order of the Bombay High Court which had refused to grant interim stay on setting up the FCU under the amended IT Rules to identify fake and false content on social media about the Union government.

Replying to another supplementary question, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan said the Centre has no plans to establish regional fact checking units under the PIB.

While speaking on incidents of factually incorrect information being circulated, without naming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Murugan cited the example of a chief minister who recently came to Delhi to attend government think tank Niti Aayog’s meeting and claimed that her microphone was switched off, terming the statement “misleading”.

“Last week also a chief minister came here in Delhi to attend a NITI Aayog meeting. In that meeting she mentioned that her mike was switched off. But we had an issue that this statement is misleading,” said the minister.