I&B Minister asks online platforms to take responsibility for content, share revenue fairly

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday (February 26, 2025) said online platforms must take responsibility for the content they host, act proactively against cybercrimes, and ensure online safety of citizens, especially children. They should share revenue fairly with original content creators, including the conventional media, he said.

“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. And if this is not done voluntarily, then there are so many countries which have shown the path to get it done in a legal way,” the Union Minister said.

At the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) Conclave, Mr. Vaishnaw identified deepfakes and the spread of disinformation through synthetically generated content as major threats to the trust in institutions, such as social identity, judiciary, media, legislature, and a democratic way of coming together and deciding things.

“That is the inflection point where we are standing today…online safety of our citizens is becoming a major concern…authenticity of news content, online safety of our children, protection against obscenity, protection against synthetically generated fake content, all those items really need a very decisive step today,” he said.

Stating that online safety of all citizens was a duty of the platforms, he said: “Non-adherence to these principles will definitely make them responsible because the nature of content has changed now, and 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.”

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The Minister said the platforms should check whether they were allowing any content that was illegal, causing harm to the citizens or inciting the commission of a crime. Pointing out that the virality of platform-generated/hosted content was such that completely false information could spread to millions within a few hours, he said the platforms “must take the responsibility for the hosted harmful content”.

Mr. Vaishnaw said the platforms should also take proactive actions on cybercrimes. “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 the online money games, where the algorithms are so designed to make everything addictive. And after winning some small amounts, there is no chance that a person playing on those games will ever be able to be a net winner,” he said.

He mentioned that the Ministry has, during intensive interactions with the platforms earlier, told them to take all necessary steps. Courts and a parliamentary committee, which has given a comprehensive report following consultation with all potential stakeholders, have also expressed concern about the issues.

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The Union Minister stressed that the platforms must also share revenue in a fair way with original content creators, including the conventional media, journalists, those generating content in far-flung areas, influencers, professors, and researchers.

Emphasising that society grew based on the intellectual property created by people, he said if it was not well respected and not fairly compensated, the growth of science, technology, arts and literature, and that of society as a whole, would get stunted. “…the human growth which has happened over the past thousands of years will get derailed…,” he added.