What if the biggest risk in a marketer’s digital media plan is not declining reach or rising CPMs, but the digital platform itself?
That question is becoming harder to ignore as the digital ecosystem in India faces increased regulatory scrutiny. In quick succession, the Indian government has turned its attention to some of the country’s biggest digital platforms, signalling a tougher approach to platform accountability.
Not too long ago, the government sought clarification from WhatsApp over its username feature, directed Telegram to strengthen its anti-piracy framework and sent Meta a notice over advertisements linked to child sexual abuse material, seeking explanation on why such ads were allowed to be hosted on the platform. On August 3, a Parliamentary panel had even summoned representatives of platforms such as Meta, Google, X and Snapchat to discuss regulation, content moderation and user privacy concerns.
The issues mentioned may be unrelated. Yet the government's response points in the same direction—digital platforms are increasingly being held accountable not just for the content they host, but for the way they are designed, moderated and governed.
For marketers, this evolution has implications that go beyond legal compliance. Platform selection has traditionally revolved around scale, targeting capabilities, creator ecosystems and return on investment. But as regulatory expectations evolve, compliance and brand safety are becoming equally important considerations in where brands choose to invest.
Yasin Hamidani, Director, Media Care Brand Solutions notes, “Earlier, advertisers primarily evaluated platforms on reach, targeting, engagement and ROI. Today, governance has become another layer in that decision. Brand safety, misinformation, data privacy, content moderation and regulatory compliance increasingly matter because a brand is also judged by the environment in which it appears.”
Tejas Maha, Associate Director - Media, White Rivers Media, backs this observation, stating, “Advertisers now treat platform governance as a core business concern rather than a simple legal matter. High-visibility failures, such as illicit content appearing in paid advertisements, force brands to recognise that their marketing infrastructure relies on flawed ecosystems.”
The change is also being reinforced by a wider regulatory overhaul. Recent policy interventions, such as the DPDP Act, have expanded the scope of what platforms—and by extension, the brands that depend on them—need to account for.
“Advertisers are now reading platform terms line-by-line. Two years ago, ‘governance’ was a compliance footnote; today, it is a boardroom line item. Some of it can be attributed to the DPDP Rules, finally notified last November after a two-year wait, with penalties running up to ₹250 crore and an outright ban on behavioural targeting of minors. Add the Competition Commission of India's AdTech probe into Google's search and display stack last year, and suddenly every media plan is accompanied with a legal review,” says Amyn Ghadiali, Country Head, Gozoop Creative.
The regulatory spotlight on platforms is creating a ripple effect within organisations. Issues that once sat within the remit of legal and compliance teams are also finding their way into marketing and technology discussions. Vikas Chawla, Co-founder, Social Beat elaborates, “Chief Marketing Officers, and often Chief Information Officers, are now involved in this. They want to know where the data comes from and what sits next to their ad—questions they weren't asking earlier.”
The new rules of platform evaluation
Advertisers are no longer just assessing whether a platform delivers scale, but whether that scale comes with adequate safeguards. This change in mindset is being driven by both regulatory developments and a growing demand within organisations for greater transparency from their digital partners.
“Regulatory scrutiny shifts platform evaluation from performance-led metrics to a model weighing governance and operational reliability,” Maha highlights, adding, “Risk assessment now combines documentary evidence, operational checks like takedown times, and commercial protections. Agencies integrate these factors into media scorecards. This leads to conservative activation on platforms with opaque governance.”
However, Hamidani clarifies that this does not necessarily mean that brands will abandon a high-performing platform at the first regulatory issue. “The approach is more about understanding exposure, having safeguards and avoiding excessive dependence on any single ecosystem,” he says.
The impact on actual budget allocation remains a more complex question. For most advertisers, performance metrics continue to dictate investment decisions, but platform accountability is increasingly emerging as a consideration that can shape campaign choices, risk appetite and long-term partnerships.
Ghadiali believes that regulatory frameworks are already affecting how digital budgets are distributed, albeit quietly. “Nobody is pulling money out of Google and Meta in a huff. The duopoly still commands 64 per cent of India's ₹94,700 crore digital ad market, as per FICCI-EY, and it still prints ROI. But every rupee of incremental budget is now asking a harder question before it lands on a walled garden,” he says.
According to him, retail media and CTV are not picking up share because CPMs suddenly got better; they're picking up share because compliance risk is now sitting right next to reach and cost as a planning input.
Maha backs this, saying, “These options give brands better control over content and clearer rules. Retail media and CTV provide safer environments with fewer compliance headaches. This helps brands build direct consumer relationships instead of depending on third-party policy changes.”
However, Ghadiali pushes against framing these channels as a ‘hedge’ against digital platforms. “The real hedge is not retail media or CTV in isolation. It is owning the data layer that stitches them together. Governance risk didn't just diversify our media mix; it forced us to finally take first-party data seriously instead of just talking about it at conferences,” he states.
Chawla believes that quick commerce, CTV, and other channels are growing quickly because brands are following where the consumer is. However, he clarifies, “Data privacy and other compliance requirements need to be solved at an organisational level, and that is irrespective of which platforms you leverage,” he concludes.
