Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw outlined on Tuesday that any and all companies operating in India should adhere to the country's legal and constitutional framework.
"Any company operating in a country should operate within the constitutional framework of that country. So whether it is Netflix, or YouTube, or Meta, or X, they must all operate within the legal framework and the Constitution of India," Vaishnaw said at the AI Impact Summit.
He added that this is a global norm and a well-established legal position, which all multinationals understand. He explained how something that is normal in one country may not be received the same way in another country, and therefore, it is important for multinationals to operate within the cultural context of that country as well.
Talking about cyber-safety of children, Vaishnaw told reporters, "Right now, we are in a conversation regarding deepfakes, regarding age-based restrictions with the various social media platforms and... what is the right way to go about this."
In the beginning of February, the Supreme Court had warned Meta and its messaging subsidiary, WhatsApp, that it would not tolerate any "play with the right of privacy" of Indian citizens. Hearing Meta's appeal against a Competition Commission of India penalty, a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, signalled a zero-tolerance approach toward exploitative data practices.
"You can't play with privacy... we will not allow you to share a single digit of our data", and said it would not stand for exploitation of Indians," the bench remarked.
The court had issued notice on the plea and impleaded the Union of India as a respondent. The Centre was also asked to file a counter-affidavit.
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