Daybreak - The govt's U-turn on how to label fake news and misinformation on social media

Episode Date: November 17, 2023

More than 160 million people in five states will be deciding their political future this month in India. Out of them, two states, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, are set to go to poll today. In any democracy, the run up to the elections is a very sensitive period where misinformation can spread like wildfire. Take what happened recently in Madhya Pradesh for example. A video of the BJP CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan went viral where he can be heard saying that his party will lose the election this time because people are really angry with the BJP. Turns out, it was a fake video. Just imagine the potential of such fake content going viral with AI and deep fakes. It is a scary thought.So what is the government latest stance on dispelling fake news and misinformation especially during election time?Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too? It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production.

Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first video. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcast or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. More than 160 million people in five states across the country will be deciding their political future this month.

Out of them, two states go to the polls today, Madhipradish and Chathisgar. And we all know how in the run-up to these elections, which are a very sensitive period for any democracy, misinformation spreads like wildfire. Take what happened recently in Madhya Pradesh, for example. A video of the BJP chief minister, Sherrod Singh-Chohan, went viral, where he can be heard saying that his party will lose the election this time because people are really angry with the BJP. Turns out, quite unsurprisingly, that it was a fake video. Now, just imagine the potential of such fake content going viral with AI and deep fakes in the picture.

India has already been dealing with misinformation and fake news at a massive scale, whether it is from TV news or on global platforms run by the likes of Meta and Google. Now, of course, a lot of responsibility in the matter also lies with the government. So earlier this month, the government of the United Kingdom held an artificial intelligence summit where more than 25 countries, including India, came together to work towards setting up common ground rules on AI oversight. And when people around the world cannot discern fact from fiction because of a flood of AI-enabled myths and disinformation, I amy.

ask, is that not existential for democracy? That was the American Vice President Kamala Harris. Now, listen to what Rajiv Chandrshaker, India's Minister of State from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, had to say at the same summit. And artificial intelligence for us, as we see it, is a kinetic enabler of the already accelerating, already expanding digital economy, innovation, growth. and governance. In a book that I just read recently by Deep Minds founder, Mustafa Suleiman, he refers to the coming decade of the coming years as the next big wave. And we certainly

see artificial intelligence as that. We are very clear on that AI represents a big opportunity for us, as well as we are extremely clear in our minds about what we need to do in terms of mitigating all of the other downsides. that AI and indeed any emerging technology can or will represent. Chandrushikar went on to talk about how the government has learned in the last 10 to 15 years that by allowing innovation to get ahead of regulation, they had opened themselves to the toxicity, misinformation and the weaponization that we see on the internet today.

And he said that that is not what we should chart for in the coming years in terms of artificial intelligence. Now, Chandrashaker's response is quite interesting, especially when you try to look at it in the context of the letter that his ministry sent to social media platforms like YouTube, Meta, X, ShareChat and others last month. The ministry asked them for an action-taken report on dispelling fake news. So if you think about what I've told you so far, you might be like, okay, great, India is finally taking misinformation seriously. and is also taking some actionable steps to stop it, right? But as things turn out, there is a lot more to India's stance on the whole thing

than what you can tell from the first glance. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm a host, Nickha Sharma, and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, thrice a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Friday the 17th of November. My colleague the Ken reporter Pratap Vikram Singh, who has been covering the tech and telco sector for many years now, broke it down really well recently to help differentiate between what is being said versus what is being actually done when it comes to curbing misinformation.

To begin with, let us try to understand why that letter from the Ministry of Electronics and IT to social media platforms is so important. You see, through this letter, the government essentially asked these companies to give it an account of the work that they had done to dispel fake news and unlawful content on their respective platforms. But here's the thing. The letter doesn't actually define fake news. It sounds more like an advisory rather than a directive from the government, especially because it actually grants these platforms the power to decide what fits into the category of fake news. Also, the government singled out YouTube specifically. It has asked the video sharing platform to come up with a policy to take action against fake news channels and tag such content or channels with news not verified. Not fake news, not misinformation, specifically the words news not verified. And of course, I don't need to tell you how these words mean very different things. News Not Verified does not have the same impact as fake news and it rather leans towards a benign

interpretation. While targeting YouTube, the Ministry's content labelling advisory interestingly left out meta, which also works with third-party fact checkers. Now, as many of you might be aware, the government is currently working on a draft Digital India bill. Till that bill sees the light of day, it seems that the government is relying on social media platforms to use their own discretion when it comes to reviewing and labeling content. Which is why for now it seems that with the assembly elections going on, this letter is more

of a tentative measure, because it is still not clear if this memorandum or letter is enforceable or not. And with the Digital India bill, Pratab spoke. to executives close to Meta and Twitter. And they believe that the government has opted for a core regulation approach this time, meaning that they will engage platforms in formulating and implementing regulations. So when you think about three years ago when the government was at loggerheads with the likes of Twitter for labeling content as misinformation or fake news, the government has actually made

kind of a U-turn now. So what does this even mean for social media platforms? Stay tuned to find out. For most companies, except YouTube, core regulation is mostly a win and business as usual. Executives close to Meta told Pratab that they're already in compliance when it comes to fact checking and content labeling. A person close to Meta told again, and I'm quoting,

being an adjudicator of truth is something that we don't want to do. That is why labeling content is a better way to go about it. If we want informed and critical citizenry there, they have to have the capacity to make up their own mind. But for YouTube, it will not be easy to fact-check and label news content as news not verified. It is still not clear if YouTube will be ready to change its product to introduce India-specific features. So, as of now, the platforms are still waiting for the draft Digital India bill. This is because with provisions on misinformation and safe harbor protection, the rules and regulations will get stricter, and of course, so will the enforcement.

Another very interesting aspect to this whole thing is also how Mehta and Google are dealing with this battle against misinformation so differently. Pratap pointed out how Mehta and Google strategies are so controversial. Meta has a full-fledged program for working with third-party fact-checking organizations in India. YouTube, meanwhile, has none. A person close to Meta said that the company works with 11 fact-checking organizations in India. It follows a strategy that it likes to call remove, reduce, inform, which basically means the removal of content that violates community guidelines and poses safety and security concerns on the platform.

It reduces the circulation of problematic content, even if it does not violate community guidelines and policies. And it also informs users by labeling when certain content is flagged by the fact checkers as false information. YouTube, meanwhile, works with priority flagger organizations that flagged content that violates community guidelines. They do this instead of fact checking when it comes to news, health, and finance. In India, for example, the Public Health Foundation of India is one such priority flagger organization for YouTube. Essentially, YouTube believes in countering content by pushing authoritative sources, publications or channels on the landing or search page. So, to sum it all up, this U-turn that the government has made with regard to dispelling fake news and misinformation

has left us with more questions than answers, at least till we see what the draft Digital India pill looks like. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters, subscriber-only apps and podcast extras. Head to the Ken.com and click on the red subscriber.

button on the top of the website. I am Snigda Sharma, your host, and today's episode was edited by my colleague Rajiv Sien.