Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw Urges Tech Giants Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to Take Responsibility Against Misinformation

India's Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has called upon major digital platforms such as Meta (formerly Facebook), Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to take responsibility for the content they host. He stressed the need for these platforms to develop technical and business process solutions to combat misinformation, which poses a significant threat to society and democracy. Vaishnaw emphasized the importance of implementing a well-considered legal framework to address issues such as deepfakes and misinformation, which will be finalized post-elections. He warned that misinformation in a diverse democracy like India could have severe consequences, impacting society, democracy, the electoral process, and societal harmony.

As India gears up for the upcoming election season, digital platforms are ramping up efforts to safeguard election integrity. In response, the government has issued advisories, emphasizing a strict stance against misinformation and deepfakes circulating on social media platforms. Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated, We have been very clear in our dialogues with the platforms; they have taken numerous measures and continue to do so. Following the conclusion of the elections, we will certainly introduce a meticulously crafted legal framework. This statement was reported by news agency PTI.

According to a report of TOI, The development comes a week after the government issued an advisory for social media and other platforms to label under-trial AI models and prevent the hosting of unlawful content. About two weeks ago, Google drew criticism over its AI tool Gemini's ‘biased’ response to a question on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw asserted that major technology companies such as Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic must take responsibility for the content they publish. Vaishnaw acknowledged the positive steps taken by these companies, stating, They are doing that in a great way; they have their own policies. Many of those policies are today leading to either taking down something or they have their own algorithms. The minister commended their efforts, highlighting the role of existing policies and algorithms in addressing content-related concerns.