4 Factors in Focus: Vaishnaw’s Push for Deepfake Regulation
Following the recent emergence of deep fake content on social media, Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw held a meeting with industry stakeholders to discuss framing regulations specifically for such online content.
The urgent meeting with the minister was attended by social media platform officials, Nasscom, professors who are familiar with artificial intelligence (AI) and the platforms where AI-generated content is created.
Vaisnaw said: “Whether it’s new regulation or part of an existing one, work has begun today to combat this kind of deep fake content on online platforms.”
The rules are drawn up based on 4 pillars. These include:
- Detection of deepfakes
- How to prevent (before release, before the virus spreads)
- Strengthening the reporting mechanism
- Awareness among people
Everyone who participated in the meeting and the government agreed that deepfake videos cannot be labeled as free speech content. Because such content can cause enormous damage, strict regulations or actions must be taken.
Vaishnaw said, “The preparation of the draft regulation has started today and in 10 days there will be another meeting with the industry stakeholders on the progress.”
The minister told ReturnByte that as discussed in the meeting, all companies have meanwhile decided to take internal action on their policies.
A MeitY official told ReturnByte that all deep fakes and discussions on the use of AI will be presented and discussed at the upcoming GPAI summit with global leaders.
One of the stages of the discussion was the watermarking of the content produced by artificial intelligence, or some kind of tagging system. However, the government is aware of some tools that can be used to remove such markings.
But it is still a matter of discussion and the government will have to see what kind of regulatory progress is made in the next 10 days, officials said. Vaishnaw stated that once the draft is ready, it will come up for public consultation.
