Fair Revenue Share For Content Creators A Must: Ashwini Vaishnaw At DNPA Conclave

Deepfakes and coordinated disinformation campaigns are putting global trust at risk, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.

“The way the world is emerging today, the core tenet of trust is under threat,” the Information and Broadcasting minister said at the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) Conclave 2026 in Delhi.

“The threat is coming from so many different angles. Deepfakes, which can make you believe things which have never happened anyway,” he said, adding that misinformation has become systemic.

Vaishnaw said that platforms hosting content must take responsibility for what they publish, saying that deepfakes, fake news and misinformation pose serious risks to society and democratic institutions.

“Social media platforms must also share revenue in a fair way with the people who are creating the content, whether it is news persons, the conventional media, the creators sitting in far-flung areas, influencers, the professors and researchers who are disseminating their work using the platforms. Everywhere the principle now has to be set right and there has to be a fair share of revenue with the people who are creating the content.” the minister said.

“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,” the minister added.

He also warned of a “Disinformation barrage, which can cause that sense of distrust which does not exist in real life,” and flagged the growing misuse of technology in “Creating synthetically generated pictures of people well respected in society, creating videos which have absolutely no correlation with reality,” he said.

According to the minister, such content affects society at large. “All that so-called content reaches the common citizen, they start questioning the very basic structure of the society,” he said.

He said that the issue is not limited to India and is “happening everywhere, not only in India,” calling it a global challenge linked to emerging technologies.

He also said that AI-generated content featuring individuals should require explicit consent to protect digital security and individual rights.

The minister said that society depends on institutions of trust, including family, judiciary, legislature, and media. He added that fairness and responsibility are key principles for the media, but online threats have challenged its credibility.

He identified online safety, child protection, prevention of synthetic content, and news authenticity as important focus areas for future policymaking.

The DNPA Conclave 2026 was organised to bring together policymakers, media leaders, and industry experts to discuss developments in digital journalism and artificial intelligence. This year's theme was ‘The New World Order of News: Rewriting the Playbook for a Resilient Digital Future'.

The DNPA represents leading digital news organisations in India and works to promote credible journalism, ethical standards, and growth in the digital news sector.