New Delhi: Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday asserted that digital platforms must take responsibility for the content they host, stressing that it is their duty to ensure the safety of children and citizens online.
Addressing a conclave of the Digital News Publishers Association here, Vaishnau said platforms need to “wake up” and understand the importance of fostering trust in institutions that human society has built over thousands of years.
He said: “Platforms must take responsibility for the content they host. The safety of children on the Internet, and the safety of all citizens on the Internet, is the responsibility of the platforms.”
The minister warned that failure to adhere to these principles would expose these platforms to accountability, noting that the nature of the Internet has now changed.
He also stressed the need to regulate the use of AI-generated content, saying that such material should not be created without the consent of the person whose face, voice or personality is being used.
“It is time to make this big, radical change,” he said. “I ask the platforms to cooperate with the basic needs of this human community. The community that today is demanding this change must be respected.”
Vaishnau said that human society is built on trust in institutions, from family and social identity to the judiciary, media and legislature, all of which operate on the basic premise of trust.
Citing the media as an example, the minister said their credibility depends on impartiality, verifying information before publishing it and being accountable for its content.
Likewise, every arm and every institution built by humans is based on these basic principles, where mutual trust defines the entire essence of the enterprise.
However, he said that with the way the world is evolving, this basic principle of trust is under threat, especially from emerging technologies such as deepfakes that can make people believe in events that never happened.
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