The Editors Guild of India on Friday welcomed the verdict of Bombay High Court striking down as unconstitutional the amended information technology rules aimed at identifying through a fact-checking unit (FCU) “fake and false” content against the government on social media platforms.

“Bombay High Court on Friday quashed the amended Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023, as unconstitutional, specifically Rule 3, which sought to empower the central government to form fact-check units to identify ‘fake and misleading’ information about its business on social media platforms,” the Guild said.

“Pronouncing the order, Justice A.S. Chandurkar opined that ‘the amendments are violative of Article 14 and Article 19 of the Constitution of India’. He further opined that the amendments also violated Article 21 and did not satisfy the ‘test of proportionality’,” the Guild added.

“The IT Amendment Rules were notified by the ministry of electronics and information technology on April 6, 2023. Along with various regulations concerning online gaming, the amendment also granted authority to a ‘fact-check unit of the central government’ to categorise and remove any online content pertaining to ‘any business of the central government’ that is deemed ‘fake, false, or misleading’,” it said.

The court observed that the amended rules infringed the right to equality and freedom of speech and said the rules, being vague and broad, could cause a “chilling effect” not only on an individual but also social media intermediaries.

The Editors Guild had raised its concerns in astatement dated April 7, 2023, stating that “amendmentsto the IT Rules will havedeeply adverse implications for press freedom in thecountry”.

In June 2023, the Guild filed a writ petition before Bombay High Court challenging the constitutional validity of Rule 3, saying it violated the right to freedom of speech and expression.

The other petitioners were stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, the News Broadcast and Digital Association and the Association of Indian Magazines.