A coalition of fact checking sites that is positioning itself as the go-to grouping to address fake news on social media has collectively focused on misinformation that reflects poorly on the ruling party, its allies, and the Union Government, according to a review of the sites’ fact checks by The Hindu.
The Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), a network of 14 digital publishers, provided a proposal last week to the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) to form a self-regulatory body that would provide fact checking services to social media platforms, reportedly with assistance from firms like Meta and Google. This would be in line with an anti-fake news provision in the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 that has prompted fears of censorship in the news media industry and civil society.