New Delhi, Sept. 11 -- A parliamentary committee has pressed the Union government to come up with a clear legal definition of fake news, which it stressed was a threat to public order and democratic process, arguing that the absence of a uniform definition makes the term vague and open to misuse. In a draft report, the Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology has noted that while stakeholders such as the Editors Guild of India, News Broadcasters and Digital Association, and leading media houses differed on how the term should be framed, the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) should evolve a "subtle but clear" definition that balances the need to curb misinformation with the protection of free speech. The committee, headed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, adopted the draft report on Tuesday and submitted it to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. "Yesterday, our parliamentary committee passed a report and submitted it to the Lok Sabha Speaker, proposing struck rules, punishment provisions, and bans for those spreading such malicious propaganda, fake news, and using artificial intelligence to push agendas against women and children on news platforms, Facebook, YouTube, and X," Dubey said in a post in Hindi on X. The draft report, reviewed by HT, also recommended MIB to explore the feasibility of giving statutory powers to the Fact Check Unit (FCU) under the PIB to act against misinformation related to gov ernment schemes and initiatives. Sejal Sharma...