Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw calls for fair IP compensation and stronger trust in democratic institutions in the digital age.
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ANI
Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Electronics & IT, Railways and Information & Broadcasting, on Thursday called on platforms to ensure fair compensation and revenue share with news publishers and content creators through voluntary arrangements. He added that if this is not done voluntarily, there are legal ways to compel it.
Raising concerns about the proliferation of deepfakes and synthetically generated content, he also said that platforms must take responsibility for the content they host and that consent must be obtained for AI-generated content featuring any particular individual or authority.
Speaking at the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) Conclave 2026, Vaishnaw said, “Platforms should rethink their revenue sharing policies. They must share revenue in a fair way with the people who are creating the content whether its conventional news publishers or creators sitting in far flung areas…this is a major concern that the entire society is today 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.” He pointed out that intellectual property and copyright are not fairly compensated; if this continues, the growth of society, science, technology, arts, and literature will all be stunted.
Trust Under Strain
When human beings created the social structure, they created so many institutions… institutions such as the judiciary, the media, the legislature, and a democratic way of coming together. “All these institutions were built on the basic premise of trust. The way the world is emerging that core tenet of trust is under threat. The threat is coming from different angles whether its throught deepfakes or synthetically generated images of well-known respected people,” he added.
Platforms Must Comply
“The nature of internet has changed Platforms must wake up, must understand the importance of reinforcing trust in the institutions that human society has created over thousands of years. Platforms must take the responsibility for the content that is hosted by them,” Vaishnaw said. The Minister raised concerns about harmful and misleading content and rising concerns, and stressed that the online safety of children and citizens is the responsibility of the platforms.
“Non-adherence to these principles will definitely make them responsible because the nature of Internet 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. Time has come to make that big inflectional change. And I will request the platforms to cooperate with this human society’s basic need and the society which is today asking for this change has to be respected,” Vaishnaw stated.
Published on February 26, 2026