AI, social media regulation find prominence in poll manifestos

Going by the poll manifestos published by major political parties the use of digital technology is likely to get a boost under the new government that will come to power after the Lok Sabha election results on May 23While most political parties have promised the greater implementation of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence AI Big Data and Blockchain technologies to drive the growth of the economy some have also assured punishment for those who misuse digital and social mediaThe Bharatiya Janata Party which pushed digital transactions in a major way during its fiveyear rule ending this year said it would further increase the ongoing incentives to expand digital transactions if voted to power againThe BJP said it would create a new datasharing framework that builds on the success of Jan Dhan and Aadhaar platforms while ensuring data privacy and security With this scheme we will ensure that every Indian has access to banking facilities within a radius of 5 km the BJP manifesto saidThe National Democratic Alliance NDA government led by the BJP faced severe criticism from the Opposition for the use of Aadhaar biometric identification system in the distribution of benefits to the people They followed up the criticism in their manifestos as wellWhile the Congress promised an amendment to the Aadhaar Act in order to restrict its use the Communist Party of India Marxist said it would push for scrapping of the use of Aadhaar and biometrics for all social welfare measures if voted to powerThe Congress manifesto even devoted a section on Digital Rights of Every Citizen to affirm its belief that every Indian shall enjoy digital rights and freely access the digital worldFrom promising access to all persons to the highquality Internet at affordable rates to passing a law to protect the personal data of all persons and uphold the right to privacy the Congress is promising the common man quite a lot of digital benefitsWe will establish a National Mission focused on sunrise technologies such as Big Data Machine Learning Internet of Things 3D Printing and Manufacturing and Knowledge Networks read the Congress manifestoThe BJP manifesto promises a Science Mission with two submissions focused on Artificial Intelligence and robotic research The BJPs Sankalp Patra also puts a lot of emphasis on using technology for helping farmers and improving agricultural outputWe will enable the development of young agriscientists to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Blockchain technology Big Data analytics etc for more predictive and profitable precision agriculture the BJP saidWhile adoption of digital technologies has increased dramatically over the years the poll manifestos of the political parties also suggest that stricter regulations for social media could be in the offingThe Congress which was earlier linked to hundreds of fake Facebook pages and accounts said it would pass regulations to stop the spread of fake news and hate speech and punish those who misuse digital and social mediaThe Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam DMK went a step ahead and stated that if voted to power it will urge the Union government to bring in a law to prevent all types of social media from publishing any kind of obscene contentThe poll manifestos suggest that irrespective of the parties that could come to power for the next five year there will be no halt in the digital journey that the country has embarked onCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get the latest updates