AI-generated content: Meity proposes continuous labelling mechanism

Draft amendment to IT Rules mandates continuous, clearly visible labels for AI-generated content across formats, as govt extends consultation deadline to May 7

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has proposed that all content generated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) carry a “continuous and clearly visible display” of a label alerting users that the content has been generated using AI throughout the “duration of the content”.

 

In an amendment to the Information Technology Rules (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code), 2021, the IT ministry proposed that all social media and internet intermediaries should ensure that the label for synthetically generated content is not just prominently visible but is also present at all times, irrespective of whether the content is a photo, audio, text, or video.

   

While proposing this amendment to the IT Rules, the government has also extended to May 7 the timeline for stakeholder consultation on the earlier amendment bringing independent news and current affairs content holders under the ambit of the central government.

 

The timeline for submission of stakeholders’ comments on this amendment was already extended to April 29 from April 14 after several objections were raised against the proposals.

 

In a meeting with industry executives, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders on April 7, senior government officials, including IT ministry Secretary S Krishnan, had said that the proposed amendments to bring independent news and general affairs content creators under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting were just “clarificatory” in nature.

 

“There is a lot more news that is done by users other than registered news publishers. So it was felt that there should be one entity which handles all news and current affairs content, and that should be I&B,” Krishnan had said.

 

In the earlier proposed draft amendments to the IT Rules, the government had said that news and general affairs content creators on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter) would be brought under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s umbrella.

 

This would, in turn, allow the MIB to issue blocking orders for content hosted on its social media channels or require them to change the content if it is found to be in violation of the rules for news publishers.