Indian Government Pushes for Digital Revenue Sharing
India's government is pushing digital platforms to implement fair revenue-sharing models with news publishers, threatening legal mandates if they fail to comply. The regulations also require platforms to combat disinformation and obtain explicit user consent for generating synthetic media. This signals increasing regulatory oversight for all digital platforms operating in India.
This push for revenue sharing was explicitly articulated by Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, at the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) Conclave 2026. He stated that platforms must create a fair revenue model for all content creators—from news organizations to individual influencers and researchers—or face the implementation of a legal framework. The financial disparity is significant; a joint report by the DNPA and EY highlighted that of ₹41,469 crore in digital advertising revenue, digital news publishers received only ₹2,345 crore, which is just 5.7% of the total. This move by the government aims to rectify what it sees as a major imbalance where platforms profit from content without adequately compensating its creators. India is looking at international precedents like Australia's News Media Bargaining Code, a 2021 law that has since directed an estimated AU$250 million annually from Google and Meta to Australian news businesses. Similar legislative efforts in Canada and discussions in the U.K., Indonesia, and Brazil show a growing global trend to regulate the relationship between tech platforms and news publishers. This initiative is part of a broader regulatory tightening under the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021, and its subsequent amendments. These rules have progressively increased the due diligence and compliance obligations for all digital intermediaries, impacting everything from content moderation to data handling and challenging the "safe harbour" liability protections platforms have traditionally enjoyed. The regulation of synthetic media is a key component of these amended IT Rules. As of February 20, 2026, platforms are mandated to label AI-generated content and must remove certain illegal content within just 3 hours of receiving a valid order, a sharp reduction from the previous 36-hour window. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued specific advisories on the threats posed by deepfakes, recommending measures like embedding digital watermarks and implementing robust verification protocols. These advisories, while not legally binding, signal the government's focus on media provenance and holding platforms accountable for the content they host and facilitate. [cite: 2, 29
