Following the Bombay High Court’s rejection of the central government’s Fact Check Unit (FCU), several individual Indian state governments in 2026 are now attempting to establish their own regional FCUs. These localized units aim to unilaterally label news regarding state officials as “fake” and force digital takedowns.

The Bharat Media Association views this as a backdoor to regional censorship. Allowing state governments to legally dictate the absolute truth completely destroys the independent media’s fundamental right to scrutinize local political administrations.