India slams Google, Twitter, Facebook for inaction on fake news, seeks stricter action

The
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) slammed the US tech giants
Google, Twitter and Facebook for not taking action against fake news, reported
Reuters. The ministry officials during their virtual meeting with the tech giants said
their inaction is forcing the government to monitor fake news, which in turn
put India under international human rights watchdogs.

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The
sources in the know of the meeting between I&B officials and tech
giants said it was a highly tense meeting, signalling a new low in ties
between American tech giants and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

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“The officials, from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B), strongly criticised the companies and said their inaction on fake news was forcing the Indian government to order content takedowns, which in turn drew international criticism that authorities were suppressing free expression,” two sources said.

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The
officials, however, stayed away from issuing an ultimatum to the companies at
the meeting, the sources said. The government has been tightening its grip over
digital media platforms, introducing laws but wants companies to do more on
content moderation.

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Monday’s
meeting was a follow-up to the ministry’s use of “emergency powers”
in December and January to order the blocking of 55 channels on Google’s
YouTube platform, and some Twitter and Facebook accounts.

The
government had said the channels were promoting “fake news” or
“anti-India” content and that the disinformation was being spread by
accounts based in neighbouring Pakistan.

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The
meeting was also attended by Indian content-sharing platforms such as ShareChat
and Koo.

After
the meeting, Facebook did not issue any statement.

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Google,
however, said it is reviewing the Indian government’s requests and “where
appropriate, we restrict or remove content in keeping with local laws.”

In
its transparency reports, Twitter has said the Indian government makes among
the highest number of requests to remove content from its platform. Technology
website Comparitech in October said India made 97,631 content removal requests
in 2020, the second-highest in the world after Russia, mostly to Facebook and
Google.