Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said he has advised “more careful” use of government logos in campaigns run by private platforms. He was responding to concerns over the use of his ministry’s logo by YouTube in its public interest print ads.
In a tweet, he said that this was not an “endorsement” by the government of any person or social media platform.
YouTube’s print ads advocating interent safety, titled ‘Trust only the real experts’, sported the logo of the the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The video-sharing platform’s ad urged consumers to trust real experts to stay safe online while also displaying pictures and handles of individual influencers. This led to some social media users voicing concern about a government logo used by a private player in an ad that also promoted social media influencers.
The YouTube ads also sported logos of the ‘Stay Safe Online’ campaign that was run by MeitY during India’s presidency of G20.
The campaign aimed to create awareness among citizens on safe online use amid the widespread use of social media platforms and rapid adoption of digital payments.