While Justice Patel struck down the Rules, Justice Gokhale upheld them.Justice Patel had said the Rules amounted to censorship, but Justice Gokhale had opined they did not have any `chilling effect’ on free speech as argued.Justice Chandurkar on Friday said he agreed with the opinion given by Justice Patel (now retired).On April 6, 2023, the Union government promulgated amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, including a provision for an FCU to flag fake, false or misleading online content related to the government.Under the IT Rules, if the FCU comes across any posts that are fake, false, and contain misleading facts about the business of the government, it would flag the same to social media intermediaries.Once such a post is flagged, the intermediary has the option of either taking down the post or putting a disclaimer on the same.In taking the second option, the intermediary loses its safe harbour/immunity and stands liable for legal action.
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