Idea of Fact Check Unit under Judicial Scrutiny

• Decision of Government of Tamil Nadu to constitute a Fact Checking Unit

About the Unit:

• A fact checking unit has been created by Tamil Nadu Government, through a Government Order (GO) with the intent of checking across all media platforms the authenticity of information related to state government.
• The Government of Tamil Nadu has claimed the Unit will help in curbing fake news.
• Provisions of IT Act have been used for the purpose of creating this unit.
• The Unit will be headed by Iyan Karthikeyan, who was the editor of the fact-checking website YouTurn.
• It will be part of Special Programme Implementation Department.

How will the Unit work?

• The Mission Director, Karthikeyan, will be assisted by a Project Director to coordinate training and content writing, and a Joint Director from the Information and Public Relations Department.
• They will coordinate public campaigns and source fake news, misinformation, disinformation and hate speech to analyze the content received and fact-check them.
• The unit holds the authority to verify the accuracy of any information pertaining to the state government, regardless of the platform. It can take action on its own to verify information and also respond to complaints from various sources.
• Once the Fact Check Unit receives complaints, the information collected by the team would be split into actionable pools and non-actionable pools.
• From the actionable pool, the Central Task Force would consult with the Advisory Team from the Government’s legal and police departments and forward it to the concerned authorities to initiate legal action.
• The Unit also has the power to take suo-motto cognisance of social media posts/articles that require fact checking.
• The Fact Check Unit will disseminate creative contents through social media platforms to create awareness about its working and fake news.

Why is the decision in question?

• The decision to constitute a Fact Check Unit has triggered a major row with several questioning the move.
• Political commentators stated the move to create a "fact-checking" unit is merely to intimidate and harass opponents.
• Legal experts call it violative of Art 19 of Constitutione. Freedom of Speech and Expression.
• It has to be noted that “public interest” is not the ground for restricting freedom of speech.
• GO of Tamil Nadu states that the “information related to Government of Tamil Nadu” has to be fact checked, which in itself is considered to be a vague phrase.
• Possibility of the Unit working against the critics of the government has led to the apprehension that it shall be detrimental to participative democracy.

History of fact check units in India:

• In early 2023, had amended the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethcis Code) Rules, 2021 to set up fact check unit in order to identify “fake, false or misleading” information with respect to any business of Central Government.
• The establishment of abovementioned Unit has been challenged in the Bombay High Court.