Meet between govt, big tech firms on fake news raises heat, says report

A discussion on the removal of fake news on internet platforms saw temperatures rising among officials of the government and Big Tech companies Google, Twitter and Facebook, according to a Reuters report.

The government had demanded the proactive removal of fake news on their platforms, but it was unhappy that the tech companies did not comply with its requests.

Due to this,  the government was forced to make demands for the removal of fake news posts and accounts which in turn triggered International criticism over the suppression of free speech, officials from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) told the companies, according to sources quoted by Reuters.

The sources described the virtual meeting on Monday as tense and heated although the government did not issue an ultimatum to the companies.

The government had ordered blocking of 55 channels on YouTube and some Twitter and Facebook accounts in December and January using its emergency powers, saying that the channels and accounts were promoting “fake news” or “anti-India” content from Pakistan, the report said.

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Google said it reviews the government’s requests and removes or restricts content “where appropriate” as per local laws.

According to Twitter, the Indian government makes the highest number of requests to remove content from its platform. A website to compare tech in October had said that India made 97,631 content removal requests in 2020, the second-highest in the world after Russia.

As per the report, I&B officials were unhappy that Big Tech was not removing such content on their own.

Officials from Google told the government that it would be better if the government did not make public the takedown decisions, according to a source.