The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has asked video streaming giant YouTube to initiate necessary legal measures against "fake news channels". MeitY has also asked the Google-owned platform to incorporate a disclaimer to address the issue of fake news. The ministry has advised YouTube to put a disclaimer "news not verified" on "fake news channels", in a notification, the media has reported.
The IT Ministry has also asked major social media platforms with more than five million members to submit an action plan within 10 days, "on how they aim to combat fake news and unlawful content".
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According to a report by Money Control, the ministry has also asked large social media platforms (those with more than 5 million subscribers) to submit an action note within 10 days, on how they plan to tackle fake news and "unlawful content".
However, MeitY has not defined on what constitutes as fake news, or the ways to identify fake news or fake news channels from other user content.
Earlier this month, YouTube responded to the IT Ministry’s notice to remove any kind of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or face stringent action, saying they have a “zero-tolerance policy” on CSAM and related content.
“We have heavily invested in the technology and teams to fight child sexual abuse and exploitation online and take swift to remove it as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Pavel Durov-owned encrypted messaging platform Telegram which was also asked to respond to the ministry's notice, said it is "always committed" to upholding legal and ethical standards on its platform, particularly in this case of addressing issues related to Child Pornography (CP), CSAM, and Rape and Gang Rape (RGR) content on the Indian internet.
Telegram said in a statement that in response to reports of CP/CSAM/RGR content, it maintains a “zero-tolerance policy towards any unlawful activities conducted by users on our platform”.