Misinformation exploited by India's enemies to fan unrest: Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Noida: Misinformation is a «dangerous phenomenon» which has been exploited by other countries and the enemies of India to create social division and unrest, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said here Thursday when asked about the government's action on news portal NewsClick. He said Internet platforms need to be «extra» careful and ensure that citizens who consume information from online sources are not misled, provoked or incited by people deliberately propagating misinformation against India and Indians.
The Minister of State for Information Technology also said the Centre has resolved to make Internet «safe and trustworthy» for Indian users.
He made the remarks during his visit to the launch of the sixth edition of 'Infinity 2023', the annual technology conference of private Amity University, Noida.
Chandrasekhar said currently, 83 crore Indians are using the Internet and by 2025-26, this number would rise to 124 crore with people using it to avail subsidies, pension, information, run startups etc.
«Our government has resolved that as the number of Internet users grows in the country, our priority is to keep Internet safe and trustworthy for our digital citizens,» the MoS for IT told reporters.
«This also includes cybercrime, misinformation and CSAM (child sexual abuse material). Recently we cracked down on CSAM because a lot of material about child pornography was on platforms and we warned them clearly of zero tolerance.
We will not allow any such platform to work in India and block them if they don't clean up their platforms,» Chandrshekhar said.
Asked about the government action on news portal NewsClick, he said misinformation is a «dangerous phenomenon» which has been exploited by other countries and
