Fight Fake News: Govt Launches Crackdown with FIRs!

Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology, has announced that the Indian Government is taking action against the rising trend of deepfake videos. This decision follows a recent meeting between Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and leading social media companies, where it was revealed that the government intends to introduce fresh regulations to address the challenges posed by deepfake videos.

Government crackdown on deepfake videos

Chandrasekhar said that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) will create a platform through which citizens can report if social media platforms violate the IT rule. The government will also help them file an FIR against these platforms if they find the content of the deepfake videos objectionable.

“Meity helps users report IT rule violations very easily to it and assist in lodging FIRs,” the minister said.

He spoke to the media after a meeting with social media platforms. “From today onwards, there will be zero tolerance for violation of IT rules,” Chandrasekhar said.

An FIR will be registered against the broker and if he discloses the information from where the content originated, an FIR will be filed against the entity that published the content, the minister said.

“Today we had a very long meeting with all the players on the Internet, the brokers, as we call them, and we have raised with them the issue of deep counterfeiting, as you know. The Prime Minister has raised the issue that deep counterfeiting is deeply disturbing, it can cause discord and all kinds of disruption communities and families.Deepfake is very clear and threatens a safe and reliable internet, which is our goal and policy.

He said the social media platforms have been given seven days to adjust the terms of use as per the IT rules.

On Thursday, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw met social platforms to address issues related to deepfake videos. “We are starting the regulation itself today and soon we will have new regulations for deep counterfeiting… this could be in the form of changing the existing framework or introducing new rules or a new law,” the minister said. reports.

Just a few days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about the issue of deepfake videos, highlighting the recent viral video of the Prime Minister’s doppelganger performing Garba. Addressing the issue, the Prime Minister said that the media must educate people about this crisis.

(with income from PTI)