IT minister sets 7-day ultimatum for social media on deepfakes compliance

Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, announced on Friday that the government is ready to help citizens in filing FIRs against social media platforms for violating IT rules if they are aggrieved by objectionable content, such as deepfakes.
Deepfakes are convincingly realistic videos created through the use of AI algorithms trained on online content. These videos, which are artificially generated, have sparked concerns due to their potential to be misleading, especially when targeting celebrities.
Chandrasekhar, emphasizing a zero-tolerance approach to IT rule violations, stated that social media platforms have been given a seven-day window to align their terms of use with the IT rules.
Chandrasekhar clarified that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will facilitate users in reporting IT rule violations and guide them in filing FIRs. He highlighted the implementation of Rule 7, where an appointed officer will establish a mechanism for users to register complaints related to deepfakes. Under the new directives, FIRs will be lodged against intermediaries, and if details of the content's origin are disclosed, the entity posting the content will face FIR as well. Referring to a specific case involving actor Rashmika Mandanna, the Delhi Police revealed progress in their investigation into a deepfake video. Technical analysis includes identifying IP addresses associated with the video and tracing the initial upload location on the internet.Expressing serious concern over the misuse of AI for creating deepfakes, the government has been proactive in addressing the issue. The IT ministry issued letters to social media platforms, reminding them of their responsibility to combat misinformation and deepfakes as per Indian law. In a recent meeting with social media platforms, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw emphasized the need for concrete actions in detection, prevention, reporting mechanisms, and user awareness.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also underscored the threat of deepfakes, labeling them a significant danger to the Indian system. He called for media involvement in educating the public about the potential chaos deepfakes could cause, and the government is preparing to introduce new regulations to tackle this emerging crisis.