Authors: Ujval Mohan & Akanksha Ghosh
Date: 1st August, 2024
For content creators and consumers alike, the 2020s have been transformative. Hundreds of creative Indians attained fame and fortune, with countless more looking forward to leverage India’s booming content economy. That may change if the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) implements proposed regulations aimed at content creators on social media platforms.
MIB is reportedly considering regulating “news and current affairs” content on social media platforms under the draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill. Concerningly, some interpret that the Bill goes even further, impacting high-reach content creators even if they do not create news and current affairs content.
Though MIB is yet to clearly state its objective driving this proposal, drafts have been shared with select stakeholders as per reports. Following this, critique on opaque consultations and potential free speech implications have rightly dominated discourse. However, its potential to stymie India’s ambitions of a shining content economy is equally concerning. It is clear that MIB’s proposal perhaps sacrifices too much to achieve too little.
Impact on India’s Content Creation Economy
India’s content creation economy is exploding, with 100mn+ content creators putting out content. YouTube’s creator ecosystem alone contributed INR 16,000 crore to India’s 2022 GDP by some estimates, rivaling contributions by traditional industries. The sector has leveraged the borderless internet to enhance India’s soft-power appeal and expand the market for India-created content. For individuals, there is a promising chance of monetizing their creativity outside conventional employment avenues. To find Indian music routinely making it to top trending lists is emblematic not just of the art’s popularity but also of an untapped economic opportunity, which hasn’t gone unrecognized. PM Modi heralded social media creators as ambassadors of “vocal for local” innovation, urging them to engage global audiences.
MIB’s proposal threatens this achievable vision. Creators have innovated precisely because of vast freedoms in choosing how they entertain their audience. Imposing close scrutiny and bureaucratic compliances on self-driven entertainers will erode incentives to operate in this buoyant arena. If every vlogger has to ‘intimate’ the Government of their follower count, set up a ‘content evaluation committee’ to approve their uploads and fulfill other such regulatory requirements, fewer Indians would take up such creative endeavors.
The ability to impulsively leverage audience engagement, mix and match genres, and ‘meme’-ify dull topics will weaken if content standards similar to MIB’s ‘Program and Advertising Code’ (Code) would apply to our favorite vloggers the way it applies to TV channels, all to the detriment of the overall content economy.
Key Unanswered Questions: Practical Challenges
Who will these regulations apply to? To craft this law, MIB has the unenviable task of defining ideas like “professional”, “content creation,” and importantly, “news and current affairs content”. MIB’s definition seems to draw the line at content of “socio-political, economic or cultural nature”, which could arguably describe much online content. This begs the question, would meme-based sports updates be considered ‘news and current affairs’? Would an engineer who vlogs their daily routine be considered a ‘professional content creator’? Would a channel that comments on social issues while mostly posting baking or make-up tutorials have to abide by the Code? These are not hypothetical edge-cases but represent the bulk of routine dilemmas and disputes that will arise when regulation meant for traditional media is imposed on a fundamentally different internet environment.
Even if that barrier is crossed, who will enforce the new law? Users upload tremendously large amounts of content to platforms everyday. Follower/subscriber reach too is dynamic and changes week-on-week, such that who is popular today may be forgotten next week. Further, content creators can have inconsistent reach/popularity between platforms and often cross-pollinate their content, which adds to this complexity. Agencies/regulators enforcing the new law will likely struggle to mobilize resources to monitor creators’ reach on a given day, and check that their content is Code-friendly.
Reports suggest that social media operators may have greater due-diligence obligations to enforce these laws. The existing IT Rules, 2021 already set out content moderation mandates that require companies to address harmful and illegal content on social media. The new law could divert already stretched resources from pressing online safety issues to scrutinize routine uploads, subjecting users to collateral censorship triggered by the vague Code and threat of criminal penalties.
Looking Ahead
Given these challenges, it is worth recalling that MIB already has broad powers to prevent harmful content and is empowered to issue emergency directions to block content on any online forum. By contrast, the proposed law would add little to MIB’s existing arsenal to address harmful content. Instead, MIB and MeitY’s jurisdictions will intersect in vast plane covering most of the internet, creating everyday confusion for users, creators, and companies
In all, allowing MIB to dictate what one is permitted to “like, comment, or subscribe” risks hurting incentives for creative Indians to earn and grow, and India’s ability to attract technology investment, while also failing Indian productive hunger for creative and engaging content.
Ujval Mohan is a Senior Analyst; and Akanksha Ghosh is an Analyst working on technology policy issues at The Quantum Hub (TQH) – a multi sectoral public policy firm.