Govt departments setting up quick response teams to counter misleading, fake social media content

New Delhi, Aug 16 (PTI) Government departments are constituting Quick Response Teams (QRT) to ensure a timely response to misleading or fake contents on social media, an official said.

There is a need to engage with people through social media in a constructive manner and to ensure that responses to rumours, misinformation, fake content, and misleading posts are issued in a timely manner, the official said.

The objective is to promptly scrutinise, coordinate and respond to such content, while effectively monitoring matters related to the works and functions of government departments on social media.

The functions and responsibilities of the respective teams include responding to fake/misleading content on social media.

Departments such as power, agriculture and commerce have already constituted their QRTs.

"Ideally, the response from the ministries should go in two hours of noting such content," the official said, adding that the monitoring of social media and relevant digital platforms would be undertaken by the social media and digital media teams of respective ministries with appropriate inputs from the new media wing of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The social media teams shall regularly monitor content relating to the ministry or department, including its policies, schemes, programmes, decisions, and announcements.

Any content which appears to be fake, misleading, factually incorrect, manipulated, distorted, taken out of context, or likely to cause public confusion shall promptly be brought to the notice of QRTs, the official said, adding the QRTs will verify such information and submit factual positions.

They will also coordinate with the PIB fact check unit.

Cases involving high virality, significant public interest, sensitive policy matters, potential public harm, legal implications, coordinated misinformation campaigns, or inter-ministerial issues would be escalated to the appropriate senior authority, another official said.

The move comes amid heightened government scrutiny of social media platforms over the spread of fake and harmful content. Earlier this month, the IT Ministry held multiple rounds of discussions with Meta over the continued circulation of AI-generated harmful content and unlabelled synthetic videos on its platforms. The government also sought greater human oversight in content moderation and better handling of Indian languages and local nuances.