Wikipedia executives were reportedly summon by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), over the alleged vandalism Indian cricketer Arshdeep Singh’s page to include fake information that link him to the separatist Khalistani movement after he drop an important catch during a Super 4 Asia Cup cricket match against Pakistan.
A high-level panel is expect to grill executives from the community maintain encyclopedia, while a show cause notice may also be issue, as per report.
MeitY is yet to officially release a statement, as report says that the summons was issue on Monday as the government was concern that the sharing of fake information on cricketer Arshdeep Singh’s profile could have a negative impact on communal harmony and his family’s safety.
The edit history of Arshdeep Singh’s Wikipedia page shows that an anonymous, unregister user made edits to the page changing the word “India” to “Khalistan”.
These changes were said to be undone within a period of 15 minutes, as per the report.
Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar criticise the changes made to the page on Twitter.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted :
“No intermediary operating in India can permit this type of misinformation (a)n(d) deliberate efforts to incitement [and] user harm – violates our govts expectations of safe and trusted internet,”.
No intermerdiary operatng in India can permit this type of misinformation n deliberate efforts to incitement n #userharm – violates our govts expectation of Safe & Trusted Internet #wikipedia @GoI_MeitY #SafeTrustedInternet pic.twitter.com/Qm6HdppM1k
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) September 5, 2022
Arshdeep Singh’s Wikipedia page mark as semi-protected until 11th September 2022, due to vandalism.
As Arshdeep Singh drop a catch in the 18th over during the Super 4 Asia Cup cricket match against Pakistan, after which he was subject to a barrage of attacks on social media by users.
Many cricket players, including former team captain Virar Kohli, came out in support of the young bowler and condemned the trolling he was being subject to.
As in August MeitY announce that it would conduct quarterly compliance audits of social media companies.
While platforms in India are currently expect to provide details of their compliance with the IT Rules,2021, every month, MeitY state that it had create a mechanism to audit the compliance of the firms.
As part of the auditing of social media companies MeitY will verify if the platforms are reporting details of grievances raised by users, while confirming if the actions taken were in compliance with the IT Rules.
Government has also previously propose the setting up of a grievance apellate panel.
