P90 New Media

The Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists deplores the Union Government’s  attempt to regulate and censor news by a disingenuous and ambiguouslydefined new device: a “fact -check unit” to identify ‘fake or false or misleading online content’ in respect of “any business of the Central Government.”
...
On January 2, 2023, the government had invited public comments on draft  rules.. . Just before the January 17, 2023 deadline for comments, the Government  came out with an amendment to the Draft Rules..  Now, the  notification replaces the PIB with a “fact-check unit”.

The BUJ asserts that such attempts constitute an unacceptable degree of interference in online content and spawn even more scrutiny, regulation and  censorship of any information that the government arbitrarily deems is false,  fake or misleading. None of these terms have been defined...
While fake news is a genuine global problem, the BUJ has scant confidence  in this government’s efforts to tackle it, given its own track record in this sphere. Already, the present Indian government is amongst the national  governments that send the highest number of take-down requests to social  media platforms... The blocking of the BBC documentary on Prime Minister  Narendra Modi’s handling of the 2002 violence when he was Gujarat Chief Minister; raids on dissenting media houses and the invoking of draconian  laws against journalists send out a clear message that independent and critical voices will face punitive action from this regime. ..
The “fact check unit” is one more nail in the coffin of meaningful democracy.  -- General Secretary, Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists 11.04. 2023