Govt to assist in filing FIRs against social media firms for deepfakes

The government on Friday warned social media companies, including Facebook and YouTube, to repeatedly remind users that local laws prohibit them from posting deepfakes and content that spreads obscenity or misinformation, two sources told Reuters.
 

The warning was conveyed by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for electronics and information technology, in a closed-door meeting where he said many companies had not updated their usage terms despite 2022 rules that prohibit content “harmful” to children, obscene or that “impersonates another person”.
 

It comes amid growing concerns over deepfakes — realistic yet fabricated videos created by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms trained on online footage — which Union Minister of Electronics and Information and Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw this week said India was drawing up rules to address.
 

The government will assist people in filing FIRs against social media platforms in case they are aggrieved by objectionable content like deepfakes that are in violation of IT rules, Chandrasekhar said.
 

He said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) will develop a platform on which people can notify the ministry about IT rule violations by social media platforms.
 

Speaking to the media after a meeting with the representatives of social media platforms here, the minister also said that social media platforms have been given seven days to align their terms of use as per the IT rules.
 

Further, Chandrasekhar said it would be acceptable for the government if social media platforms label content as deepfake instead of taking down the content.
 

The ministry will appoint an officer who will deal with implementation of Rule 7 of IT Rules that were notified in October 2022. Chandrasekhar said the companies must raise awareness of the rules by reminding users every time they log in that they cannot post such content, or by issuing reminders.
 

He said otherwise he would issue directions forcing them to do so, said the two sources, who declined to be named as the meeting was private. The minister described it as a “non-negotiable” demand of the government during the meeting, said one of the sources.
 

The IT ministry said in a press statement all platforms had agreed to align their content guidelines with government rules.
 

Facebook and Chandrasekhar did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.Alphabet Inc’s Google, which owns YouTube, said in a statement it was committed to responsible AI development and has robust policies and systems to identify and remove harmful content across its products and platforms.
 

The government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have raised concerns over deepfakes in recent days.
 

During a virtual summit of G20 nations on Wednesday, Prime Minister Modi called on global leaders to jointly work towards regulating AI, and raised concerns over the negative impact of deepfakes on society. Countries across the world are racing to draw up rules to regulate AI. India has been tightening regulations of social media companies, which count the South Asian nation as a top growth market.
 

Last year, the government privately criticised the companies for not removing what it described as fake news on their sites, which it said had forced it to order content takedowns.