INS asks Centre to ban Chinese-funded digital news apps

The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has asked the Centre to ban Chinese-funded news aggregator applications contending that they have no accountability and make no effort to curb the proliferation of “fake news” on their platforms.

In letters to Home Minister Amit Shah, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar and Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the INS also said that news aggregator apps such as Dailyhunt and InShorts have nearly 80% foreign ownership and do not adhere to the FDI norms for digital news media ownership.

“Additionally, they accumulate Indian consumer data and attempt to monetise it and potentially share it with foreign partners,” the INS, a body that represent Indian newspapers publishers, said.

They said over the last few years, Chinese and foreign-owned news aggregators have spent almost 200 million dollars promoting these apps in India. “...and we believe this has been extremely detrimental to national interest as they have compromised our country’s public discourse through the spread of misinformation and fake news,” said the letter signed by INS President Shailesh Gupta.

The INS also highlighted attempts by China to gain direct publishing access in India, to disseminate incorrect maps and venture investments as a backdoor route to gain influence over the Indian news media and industry.

“The majority of these investments were made when laws around foreign investment in digital media were still nascent and ambiguous,” the INS said.

“Now that we understand China’s intentions, we believe it is time to reverse this historical mistake and ban media assets which have taken this form of tainted foreign funding,” it said.

The INS noted that China had recently censored and banned Indian news sources and websites and welcomed the government’s initiative to ban Chinese backed social media apps as an “extremely prudent measure.”