Safety, consent, fair pay: Ashwini Vaishnaw’s three-point warning to online platforms

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday issued a strong message to digital intermediaries, saying online platforms must take clear responsibility for the content they host, act proactively against cybercrimes, and ensure the safety of users, especially children.

Addressing the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) Conclave, Vaishnaw said, “Platforms must take the responsibility for the content that is hosted by them. The online safety of children, the online safety of all citizens is the responsibility of the platforms.”

Concerns over online safety

He underlined that the digital ecosystem had reached a turning point. “That is the inflection point where we are standing today. Online safety of our citizens is becoming a major concern. Authenticity of news content, protection against obscenity and synthetically generated fake content all need a very decisive step today,” he said.

Raising concerns over deepfakes and AI-generated misinformation, the minister warned that synthetic content must not be created without consent. “Synthetic content should not be generated without the consent of the person whose face or voice or personality has been used to create the content,” he said, adding that failure to adhere to such principles would make platforms accountable. “Non-adherence to these principles will definitely make them responsible because the nature of content has changed now.”

Vaishnaw said the speed and scale at which misinformation spreads online has amplified risks. “The virality of platform-hosted content is such that completely false information can spread to millions within a few hours. Platforms must take the responsibility for the hosted harmful content,” he said.

He urged companies to examine whether they were allowing illegal material, content that harms citizens, or posts that incite crime.

Revenue sharing and accountability framework

The minister also called for proactive action on cybercrimes, citing recent legislation targeting addictive online money games. “In the recent past, we passed a law by which crores of families are saved from becoming absolutely bankrupt by losing out their money to online money games, where the algorithms are so designed to make everything addictive,” he said.

On revenue sharing, Vaishnaw asked platforms to rethink their policies. “I will request all the platforms to rethink your revenue sharing policies because that is also one of the major concerns that the entire society today is raising,” he said. If not done voluntarily, he added, “there are so many countries which have shown the path to get it done in a legal way.”

Emphasising the importance of intellectual property, he said society’s growth depends on fair compensation for creators. “If intellectual property is not well respected and not fairly compensated, the growth of science, technology, arts and literature will get stunted,” he said, warning that human progress built over thousands of years could be derailed