Bengaluru: The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka is planning to hire “fact-checkers” to sift through and verify social media content, and help crack down on people spreading fake news.
Fact-checking companies that use artificial intelligence will be empanelled and will provide the requisite information to the state, Priyank Kharge, Karnataka’s minister for Information Technology, Biotechnology, Rural Development & Panchayat Raj, told ThePrint.
Further, social media content would be categorised in three ways — information, misinformation and malicious information, he said.
“The services of these companies will be used not just to prompt ‘reactive’ action but also ‘pre-emptive’ action,” the minister said. “Let’s say Bakrid (festival) is coming… we know there is a pattern to it (spread of certain information)… or, an India-Pakistan match is coming up… we know there is a pattern… or, (when) there is some kind of aggression in Manipur. There is a need for constant monitoring.”
At a high-level meeting with his ministers on Monday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah approved the setting up of a fact-check unit in Karnataka to curb fake news, fake emails, and cybercrime.
“A three-step measure has been approved to curb the spread of fake news by detecting the syndicates who create it and punishing them,” the CMO tweeted.
ಪ್ರಜಾಪ್ರಭುತ್ವಕ್ಕೆ ಬೆದರಿಕೆಯೊಡ್ಡುವ ಹಾಗೂ ಸಮಾಜದ ಸ್ವಾಸ್ಥ್ಯ ಕದಡುವ ಸುಳ್ಳು ಸುದ್ದಿಗಳ ನಿಯಂತ್ರಣ ಮಾಡಬೇಕಿದ್ದು, ರಾಜ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಫ್ಯಾಕ್ಟ್ ಚೆಕ್ ಘಟಕ ಸ್ಥಾಪನೆ ಸೇರಿದಂತೆ ಅಗತ್ಯ ಇರುವ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ನಿಯಮ ಮತ್ತು ಕಾನೂನು ರೂಪಿಸಲಾಗುವುದು.
ಸುಳ್ಳು ಸುದ್ದಿಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಸುಳ್ಳು ಸುದ್ದಿ ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸುವ ಸಿಂಡಿಕೇಟ್ ಗಳ ಪತ್ತೆ, ಸುಳ್ಳು ಸುದ್ದಿ… pic.twitter.com/rltZs4PTPm
— CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) August 21, 2023
The fact-check unit will reportedly comprise a monitoring committee and fact-check analysis team, and nodal officers will be appointed.
Preparation of guidelines for the ‘fact checking’ department are underway, state government sources told ThePrint, adding that most sections of the Indian Penal Code will be under the ambit. Further, the state home department will enforce the guidelines with support from the IT department.
The Karnataka government is also planning to “book anyone whose posts or information (misinformation) leads to unrest in the state”.
“Spreading misinformation with malicious intent will be a crime,” Kharge said. “What we are trying to do is maintain law and order and debunk fake narratives. We are not trying to control the narrative like the central government is doing.”
According to the minister, the state machinery will keep in touch with social media platforms like X, Meta and WhatsApp to keep a constant vigil on the spread of information that is likely to be fake or malicious.
ThePrint reached out over phone to two senior officials in the Karnataka home department with queries on the subject, but they were unavailable for comment.
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‘Unrest is being created in society’
The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government, which wrested power from the BJP in May, had announced soon after taking over the administration that it would take steps to contain the spread of misinformation in Karnataka.
“As the (2024) Lok Sabha election is approaching, more attempts to spread fake news are (being) made and unrest is being created in society,” the CMO had stated in June.
The same month, Priyank Kharge registered a police complaint against BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya, party president J.P. Nadda and Chandigarh BJP chief Arun Sood for “dissemination of malicious, false and incendiary content targeting Indian National Congress (INC) and its senior leaders with the intention to promote enmity between groups and incite as well as provoke”.
The case pertained to an animated video shared by Malviya on 17 June. In the complaint, Kharge described the video as “a foreign voiceover outlining an anti-national objective to deter India’s ascension as a global economic powerhouse”.
“The said video is created and published with the express intention to defame the INC as well as its senior leader, Shri Rahul Gandhi, and to bring ill repute by portraying the INC and as its leaders as conspirators in this destructive agenda, which is unequivocally illegal and amounts to committing offences punishable under the Indian Penal Code,” he stated.
On Thursday, Kharge said: “For long, the BJP IT handles have been spewing venom, spreading communal disharmony and false news. So, it’s high time these people are reined in, including their IT chief. Whatever he put up on 17 June is highly malafide, and we are going to take action against it.”
Prior to that, in 2020, a riot had broken out in Bengaluru following protests over a social media post allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad. The post was allegedly put up by P. Naveen, nephew of Pulakeshinagar MLA Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy of the Congress, who claimed that his account on Meta had been hacked.
In December 2017, the previous Siddaramaiah-led Congress administration had tried to debunk claims made by BJP leader Shobha Karandlaje over the death of fisherman Paresh Mesta in Honnavar town of Uttara Kannada district. Karandlaje, BJP MP from neighbouring Udupi-Chikmagalur, had stated on social media that Mesta was “tortured and killed by jihadis”.
Following the allegation, the state police were reported to have put out a detailed response on 11 December, 2017 by the forensic science laboratory in Manipal (Udupi district) stating that there was “no evidence to suggest Mesta was tortured”.
The CBI, in its closure report filed in Mesta’s case last year, stated the cause of death as “ante-mortem drowning”.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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