Govt considering framework to prevent platforms from exploiting content creators

The government is mulling to come with a framework to prevent exploitation of content creators by big platforms on internet, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday.

The minister said that big powerful commercial platforms online have started to distort fundamental characteristic of openness of the internet.

"I think to maintain the openness, the symmetry between those who create the content and those who distribute the content, there is a need for some sort of conversation or discussion."

"If I may dare to say so, some form of a framework that will prevent these big platforms from exploiting the content creators, whether that's a large news organization or an individual content creator," the minister said at the ET Now Global Business Summit.

He said the government has looked at the issue very closely.

"We certainly don't like that it is not allowing small content creators to be confident that his or her content is being monetised fairly and he or she is getting fair returns for that content. There is a conversation that is ongoing and I hope with the third term of our honourable prime minister we will be able to enact the Digital India Act," the minister said.

Talking about the government's fact check unit, the minister said it was to help those platforms which wanted to label misinformation.

In response to a question on threat to jobs from AI, the minister said he has developed a high sense of intuition that AI will create more opportunities in the workforce in terms of companies, enterprises, startups, etc.

"It will certainly replace some jobs. It will certainly transform some job roles. AI in its current form will certainly allow companies to do more. There is going to be disruption. There's going to be transformation. There are going to be new job roles created, which will require new skills, new talented workforce, new talent to the workforce," Chandrasekhar said.