FDI cap in digital news meant to check Chinese, other foreign influence, says I&B official

New Delhi | Bengaluru: The government’s clarification on Friday that the rule allowing 26% foreign direct investment (FDI) in digital news will apply to news aggregators, entities uploading streaming news on websites apps and other platforms as well as news agencies, is intended to check “foreign influence and interference in India’s domestic affairs, check Chinese and other overseas funding in news sites”, according to top I&B ministry officials. Importantly, the new rules will “create a level-playing field for all media”, as per these officials.

The presence of Chinese and foreign-owned digital media outlets that did not comply with the FDI cap, notably entities such as Dailyhunt, UC News, Opera News, and NewsDog were of concern, an official said. According to senior officials, the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) was the among the first to raise concerns over aggregators.