Karnataka to launch permanent fake news tracking wing under Home Department
The Karnataka government is set to establish a permanent, full-fledged wing under the Home Department in Bengaluru to track fake news and combat digitally altered media. An official announcement regarding the revival and transformation of the Information Disorder Tracking Unit is expected shortly.
The decision comes after a 90-day trial run of the unit conducted between March and July 2024, during which it tracked thousands of fake news posts and carried out fact checks on digitally altered photographs and videos. Following this trial, the unit was left on the back burner for two years.
A proposal was placed before the Home Department to integrate the unit with a legal cell and an enforcement agency. The need to ensure seamless coordination between these three entities had delayed the full-fledged launch of the unit.
The process of formalising the unit has now gathered pace because both the Home Department and the IT/BT Department are currently handled by a single minister. According to sources in the Home Department, all the outstanding issues are currently being ironed out to prepare for the official launch.
During its 90-day trial run, which coincided with the Lok Sabha elections, the unit screened an average of 7,800 articles per day to identify misinformation, flagging 319 of them. It conducted a total of 537 fact checks, averaging around nine per day.
Of the fact checks performed, 34 per cent were related to political developments and 20 per cent were related to elections and voting. The unit sent 39 of these cases for legal review, which subsequently resulted in the filing of 18 First Information Reports (FIRs).
When the unit was first announced, it faced opposition from civil society groups. Petitions submitted to the government raised concerns that the unit could restrict freedom of expression. To address and allay these concerns, the government has sought assistance from civil society groups and fact-checking media organisations.
