New Delhi, January 20, 2023 (PPI-OT):The Indian National Congress has termed as surreptitious assault on free speech the new amendments in the draft Information Technology (IT) Rules asking social media companies to take down news articles that have been deemed “fake” by the Indian government. The Congress’ head of media department Pawan Khera at a press conference at the party headquarters in New Delhi said that for the Narendra Modi government, IT rules stand for “image tailoring” rules. “Muzzling the Internet and censoring online content through PIB [Press Information Bureau] is the Modi government’s definition of ‘fact checking’,” he said.

“In an unprecedented move, which smacks of the Orwellian ‘Big Brother Syndrome’ – the Modi government has anointed itself to be the judge, jury and executioner of online content regulation” Khera said, adding the amendment essentially means that PIB’s fact-checking unit has become a judge in taking down content which might not suit the Modi government’s image. He also said that bulldozing the press is not new for the Modi government. “The popular term ‘godi media’ is now ingrained in the psyche of most Indians, and now this government wants to make it ‘godi social media’,” Khera maintained.

He said the Congress strongly condemns this “surreptitious assault on free speech and vile censorship”. “We demand that the new amendment in the Draft IT Rules be immediately withdrawn and that these rules be discussed threadbare in the forthcoming session of the Parliament,” he said.

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