Government may enact legislation to combat deepfakes and false information

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the union minister of state for electronics and technology, stated on Tuesday that the government may think about passing a new law to address deepfakes and false information. Separately, on Thursday and Friday, the IT ministry has scheduled two talks with executives from social media companies.

The topic of faked photos and videos will be the main concern of the conference, which is scheduled for this Thursday at Rail Bhawan. Chandrasekhar arranged a meeting for this Friday, and the main topic of discussion will be general IT regulation compliance.

The minister claimed that despite its empowerment, the internet and artificial intelligence are being exploited to “cause harm, to cause chaos in society, to cause disorder, and to incite violence.” According to Chandrasekhar, deepfakes pose “a very important, clear and present danger” to internet users in India.

“We have already worked very hard and created the IT Rules in April 2023. We will continue to create a framework, including but not limited to, if necessary, a new legislation to ensure that deepfakes or misinformation at large do not pose a threat… to the safety and trust of 1.2 billion Indians who will be on the Indian internet,” he informed the ANI news agency.

Not just social media platforms, but all intermediaries were required by the IT guidelines, which were announced in February 2021, to take down any content that featured a user in full or partial nudity, or portrayed them in a sexual act, or impersonated them, even using morphing photos.

Upon receiving a complaint from the user or someone acting on her behalf, all intermediaries are required to take down such content within a day.

The IT regulations were changed in April of this year to enable a fact-checking unit that has been alerted by the government to find any material that is “fake, false, or misleading” on the operations of the central government.

Two days after IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced his government will convene them to discuss deepfakes, the IT ministry on November 20 invited all social media firms with more than 50 million users in India to a meeting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi voiced worry on Friday about the exploitation of artificial intelligence and technology to produce deepfakes and mentioned that the media should help spread awareness of the issue.

The IT ministry reminded all social media platforms of their obligation to filter out misinformation and deepfakes as required by Indian law in two letters sent to them on November 8, the day after a widely shared fake video featuring Telugu actor Rashmika Mandanna raised concerns about the misuse of artificial intelligence and its potential to encourage gender violence online.

You might also be intersted in- Bihar government all set to hike reservations in the state to 75%