Digital platforms must take responsibility for online content: Vaishnaw
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday asserted that digital platforms must take responsibility for the content they host and ensure fair revenue sharing with content creators and news organisations, cautioning that innovation will suffer if creators are denied due compensation.
Addressing the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) Conclave here, Vaishnaw also underlined the need to regulate the use of AI-generated content, saying such material should not be generated without the consent of the person whose face, voice or personality is used.
“Platforms must take responsibility for the content that is hosted by them. The online safety of children and all citizens is the responsibility of the platforms,” Vaishnaw said, underlining that digital intermediaries have transformed into powerful media outlets.
He stressed that intellectual property must be respected and fairly compensated, noting that society’s progress in science, technology, arts, and literature depends on it. Digital platforms, he said, should ensure fair revenue sharing not just with news organisations but also with independent creators in remote areas, influencers, professors, and researchers.
“I request all platforms to rethink their negotiation policies. If voluntary action is not taken, many countries have already shown that legal pathways exist,” he said.
He said digital platforms need to “wake up” and understand the importance of reinforcing trust in the institutions that human society has built over thousands of years.
The minister for Information and Broadcasting, Railways and IT said the society is struggling with several issues that need to be addressed in the next decade — online safety, authenticity of news content, safety of the children, protection against obscenity, protection against synthetically generated fake content.
“All these issues require decisive steps today because they are challenging and even destroying the fundamental tenets of our society: trust in institutions built over centuries,” he said.
Similarly, Vaishnaw said, every institution is based on the fundamental tenet that mutual trust defines the entire core of the institution. However, the way the world is evolving, that core tenet is under threat, particularly from emerging technologies such as deepfakes that can make people believe in events that never occurred, he said.
He said that the threat could be from a barrage of disinformation, which can create a sense of distrust that does not exist in real life, and synthetically generated pictures of well-respected people in society with absolutely no correlation with reality.
“And all that so-called news or so-called information, when it reaches the common citizen, the common citizen starts questioning the very basic structure of society. That is the big threat.
“And this is not something that we in India alone are observing. In my interactions with practically every country, every society is struggling with these issues,” he said.
The minister wondered how people rebuild that trust within institutions that has been created over centuries. How can these institutions be protected from the threat emerging from the current shape and form of the internet, he said.
“That is the inflection point we are facing. At this inflection point, the online safety of citizens is becoming a major concern,” he said.
The minister cautioned that non-adherence to basic principles would make digital platforms accountable.
He also underlined the need to regulate the use of AI-generated content, saying such material should not be generated without the consent of the person whose face, voice or personality is used.
“The time has come to make that big inflectional change. I request the platforms to cooperate with this human society’s basic needs. The society which is today asking for this change has to be respected,” he said.
Vaishnaw said human society is built on trust in institutions -- from the family and social identity to the judiciary, media and legislature -- all of which operate on the fundamental premise of trust.
Citing the media as an example, the minister said its credibility rests on being unbiased, verifying information before publication and remaining accountable for its content.
The minister said people must realise that the nature of the internet has changed and it is no longer the open-source space that was primarily used to exchange information between different parts of the world.
“Today, it has become a powerful media outlet. And like media organisations, platforms must take responsibility. The time is gone when platforms could say they are not responsible for content. Those times are gone. Platforms have changed from being pure intermediaries to becoming hosts to the world,” he said.
He said like a hotel manager verifies guests to ensure they do not engage in illegal activities, platforms must also take responsibility for any harmful content hosted by them.
“The virality of platform-hosted content is known to all of us. Information, even misinformation, can spread to millions within hours. Therefore, the time has come for platforms to take responsibility,” he said.
Vaishnaw said there must be user consent for synthetically generated content. “How can a video of a famous news anchor be generated without consent, how can an IT industry leader’s video appear without his consent, asking people to do something. This is not acceptable. Consent must be mandatory,” he said.
He said the time has also come for platforms to take proactive action against cyber fraud and cybercrime, which everyone has seen in the recent past.
The minister said Parliament has passed a law recently that has saved crores of families from becoming bankrupt due to online gaming addiction.
He said algorithms are designed to make content addictive, and once engaged, users often cannot exit easily.
“These are real challenges. The courts are concerned. The judiciary has repeatedly expressed concern about the societal harm. Parliamentary committees have conducted extensive consultations and submitted comprehensive reports. I urge media and platform representatives here to go through those reports carefully,” he said.
