DNA Exclusive: Centre’s crackdown on Twitter for allowing fake news factory to thrive

New Delhi: There are many news today but most of them are fake. It is up to the audience to decide whether they want authentic news or fall for fake news.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Wednesday (June 16) discussed the fake news factory thriving on Twitter and the Centre’s crackdown on the microblogging platform for failing to check it.

Recently, a fake story was widely circulated on Twitter that showed an elderly Muslim man being thrashed by some people. Some journalists and opposition leaders linked the incident to the slogan of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and portrayed it as a communal matter.

However, Uttar Pradesh police clarified that 72-year-old Abdul Samad was beaten up in Ghaziabad on June 5 because he had sold some people talismans that had a bad effect on them.

Consequently, the UP police registered FIR on nine people including Twitter for spreading fake news and creating communal disharmony.

Among the accused is Mohammad Zubair, who is the co-founder of Alt News. Zubair, who calls himself a fact-checker himself propagated fake news.

Journalist Rana Ayyub, who is famous for writing articles against the Indian government in western media, has also been named in the FIR.

Apart from this, news website The Wire, Congress leader Salman Nizami, former president of Aligarh Muslim University Students' Union and Congress leader Maskoor Usmani, Congress national spokesperson Dr Shama Mohammad and journalist Saba Naqvi are are also named in this. All of them are active members of the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’.

Even Twitter Inc and Twitter India have been named in the FIR. This is the first time in India, when a social media platform has been made an accused in such a case.

The question is that after this FIR, will Twitter suspend the accounts of these people and will it take back the blue ticks from these people.

It is important to understand how Twitter was made accused in an FIR for the first time in India.

The central government has ended the legal protection given to Twitter. It has withdrawn the Intermediary status accorded to it.

Technology companies in India have got this legal protection under section 79 of the IT Act 2000. Under this, if any objectionable content is shared or any fake news is spread from the social media platform of these companies, these companies will not be held responsible for it.

Till now these foreign companies were taking advantage of the exemption given in Indian law, but now this will not be possible. Now, these companies will also come under the legal purview and they can be held responsible for objectionable content and fake news. This has started with Twitter.

On February 25 this year, the Government of India, while making new IT rules, gave three months to all technology companies to create a compliance mechanism. But despite this, Twitter did not comply. It may the reason behind the action that has been taken against Twitter.

Appearing on DNA, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the country cannot run according to Twitter.

"Foreign companies are free to do business in the country but they have to adhere to laws. The country is not dependent upon Twitter," the Union IT Minister said.

Slamming Twitter, Prasad said that it is astounding that Twitter that portrays itself as the flag bearer of free speech, chooses the path of deliberate defiance when it comes to the Intermediary Guidelines.