Government Forums Have Lagged Behind In Rulemaking For Big Tech Players, Says Rajeev Chandresakhar Signifying the issues that are to be addressed by the government, Chandrasekhar particularly pointed out safety and trust as the core issues

Minister of state for electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, on Sunday, said that the government forums have lagged behind in rulemaking for big tech players for their upheavals which can cause harm to society, as per a PTI report. He further added that the Internet, which has been a force for good, has also progressively begun to picture risk, user harm and criminality.

While speaking at the India Internet Governance Forum (IGF) hosted by FICCI, Chandrasekhar said that, "For very long governments of the world and indeed, IGF and most forums, have lagged behind these giant private platforms, large tech platforms in terms of the do's and don'ts and the rulemaking that are required. We treated them for a longer period as innovators and innovations potentially being able to cause harm and create other disruptions to society and people."

Signifying the issues that are to be addressed by the government, Chandrasekhar particularly pointed out safety and trust as the core issues. In his words, "They are going to be the elderly, students, children, women, rural and urban. Therefore, safety and trust online become very significant policy duties on the part of the government to deliver to our citizens and of course accountability."

Sharing the systematic, yet slow approach of government in creating the legal policy frameworks, citing the example of the intermediary rules that went through almost three-and—half months of public consultation, the minister said that, "The consultation and the multi-stakeholder ecosystem that has been built around the internet in India is helping us bridge these policies and build these laws with extensive consultation."

According to the report, IT secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma said the Digital India program augments the country's mission with digital literacy initiative skills with an exemplary indigenous success story, which has become a world story with technical progress shaping new India.