Minister for State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Tuesday, that ad tech monopolies are a cause for concern, and addressing these asymmetries will be a key priority for the government. Stating that India’s transformation in the digital and tech space has been “spectacular,” he said India is no longer seen as a place to set up cost-effective back offices but as a valuable partner for shaping the future.

“This transformation is significant. Essentially, over the past ten years, the policies of our Prime Minister have been enabling, and this qualitative structural shift has created the momentum that we see today. The next wave of start-ups and innovation is going to be much deeper and much more tectonic,” he said while addressing the DNPA Conclave and Awards 2024.

‘Deep asymmetry’

Responding to a query on ad-tech monopolies, Chandrasekhar said, “We are concerned about the deep asymmetry between those who create content and those who help them to monetise it. From a policymaking point of view, we want the internet to be open, and we certainly do not want monetisation on the internet to be in the purview of or to be controlled by just one, two, or three companies.” He added that the pre-consultation draft of the Digital India Act lays the foundation for solving these “visible asymmetries” between the Indian content creation ecosystem and the big platforms.

“These big tech platforms are gatekeepers to monetising the content, and that asymmetry needs to be legislated, or at least regulated, through the rules of new legislation. And I’m hopeful that after PM Narendra Modi ji resumes office (in the third term), this will be one of his priorities,” he added. He said that there will need to be consultations to arrive at a framework to address this issue.

There are growing concerns about the revenue shared by the big tech companies with media organisations in terms of content monetisation.

Stating that India began looking at issues such as fake news and deepfakes before they attained global attention, Chandrasekhar added that the focus of the government is to ensure that citizens’ fundamental rights are not violated, as well as understanding that this is a real challenge requiring “legislative guardrails.”

Responding to a question about the legal dispute between the New York Times and OpenAI, the Minister said that he personally feels its a “defining case” on the rights of the digital content ecosystem.

Talking about the challenges in the tech space, he said the key challenge will be to elevate Indian talent pool to global standards. “This is a challenge and a goal at the same time. We need to aim for this in areas such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence. It is no longer sufficient to be an engineer, have a master’s degree, or even just a few years of experience. You really need the ability to research and innovate. Research and innovation should be embedded in our colleges, universities, and workplaces,” Chandrashekar added.

Meanwhile, Information and Broadcasting Minister, Anurag Thakur said that the government is looking to bring in policies to address digital advertising issues and ensure no revenue loss happens. He also raised concerns about fake news, paid news, and clickbait news and the adverse impact they are having on the credibility of the news media. He added that much of the media governance is self-regulated, but that does not mean license to err intentionally. Stating that the media’s responsibility is to convey news, not manufacture news, he added that there is a need to combat misinformation and infodemic of fake news.

In his address, S Krishnan,Secretary, MeiTY, spoke on the advent of AI and that the laws currently don’t deal with some of these emerging issues. Krishnan pointed out the need for categorisation of internet intermediaries and having different regulatory regimes for them. He also pointed out challenges when content produced by a news publisher after having done fact-checks gets treated similarly to the content created by someone who is just voicing an opinion on platforms.

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