In the game of digital evolution, technology giants have for a long period managed to hold on to the reins. “Google and Meta have been the bigger players in the space for a significant amount of time. There has been a deep asymmetry between content creators and companies that monetise the said content,” Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Electronics and Information Technology of India, said. Chandrasekhar was speaking at the Digital News Publishers Association Conference, held in Delhi on Tuesday. “We want the Internet to be open. We do not want the Internet or the monetisation of the Internet in the purview of just one or two companies. We do not like monopoly or duopoly. We don’t want 120 crore Indians on the Internet in 2025 should be catered to by big islands on the Internet whether it be e-commerce, search, social or ad tech,” Chandrasekhar added.
Moreover, how large technology companies have begun to play God when it comes to the dissemination of content has also become an area of concern for publishers and content creators. “Social media platforms initially encouraged views and current affairs and encoded that content because they wanted more and more users to gravitate towards it. Now when there is a robust ecosystem of influencers and content creators, they are playing God. I have a certain view that no platform can deny a content creator access to the platform to distribute and monetise it,” he added. Platforms need to give reasons or grounds to creators stating that the content is violating norms.
A recent corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore was announced by the government in the interim budget as India tries to establish itself as an innovator in the technology sector.
Furthermore, as big companies continue to tighten their stronghold on the sector, content moderation has also become crucial. There are 11 types of categories that are unlawful under IT Act as well as the criminal law. As per Chandrasekhar, a platform has to ensure no user of the platform posts content which falls under the bracket of these 11 categories, according to the IT Rules. The platform has to take down such content if it is posted on the platform and the user has to be gatewayed to either deplatforming or prosecuting. “Nobody can argue that content violating someone else’s ownership is an overreach or misinformation and using deep fakes using patently false information is lawful because under the criminal code under 469, under 177, these are all prosecutable crimes,” Chandrasekhar highlighted.
Misinformation has been rampant in India. According to various media reports, 50% of information found on the Internet is fake. While India continues to battle misinformation, Chandrasekhar believes that the government has to protect the fundamental rights of people. He further emphasised legislative guardrails to ensure platforms are accountable for the correctness of the trust of the content. “The responsibility has to be doubly and triply sure that what consumers consume is the truth. We are a country of 90 crore today and we are surrounded by people who want to slow us down. Spreading misinformation and using it to cause chaos and disturbances in India is an option they choose due to it being the vulnerable underbelly of democracy,” Chandrasekhar stated.