Government Evaluates Social Media Platforms’ Efforts to Combat Deepfakes; Advisory on Full Compliance Forthcoming

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar held a meeting with social media platforms on Tuesday to assess their efforts in combating misinformation and deepfakes. He emphasized that within the next two days, advisories will be issued to ensure complete adherence by these platforms.

New, amended IT rules to further ensure compatibility of platforms and the safety and trust of online users are being actively considered, Chandrasekhar said at X (formerly Twitter).

“Today we held another #DigitalIndiaDialogues for Misinformation and #Deepfakes event with brokers to review progress since the November 24 meeting. Many platforms are responding to the decisions made last month and advice on how to ensure 100% compliance will be released in the next phase. 2 days ,” Chandrasekhar, who is the IT and Electronics Minister, said in the message.

At the same time, sources said that the government has spoken hard with digital platforms in Tuesday’s meeting.

The promoter has been reminded that the 11 areas of “user harm” or “illegalities” flagged under the IT rules are also mapped to corresponding provisions of the IPC (Indian Penal Code), so criminal consequences may follow even under existing laws.

The government has said that the terms of service/community guidelines published by the platforms should clearly mention that violation of Section 3(1)(b) of the IT Rules also amounts to violation of relevant provisions of other laws such as the IPC.

The initiator had been asked to adapt the terms of service/community guidelines to the provisions of the IT rules, especially the mentioned 11 prohibited areas, and map with other laws (such as IPC). The terms of use/community guidelines must be easily visible to users, and users must be sent regular reminders/notifications about the 11 prohibited areas.

The platform must ensure easily accessible mechanisms for reporting violations, and all reported violations (including in-app complaints) must be handled as a complaint with a complaint officer. In addition, the role of Rule 7/ Section 79 judgment will be played by the Appeal Board or GAC, the sources said.

On November 24, Chandrasekhar met representatives of social media platforms and the companies were given seven days to act decisively on deepfakes and adjust the terms of use as per IT rules.

Sources said some platforms have complied and those “slow” have been given more time. At its meeting on Tuesday, the government has made it clear that it will continue its “zero-tolerance approach” to user harm caused by misinformation and deep fakes.

Sources said many platforms have shown a clear understanding of what is right and are adapting quickly, but some platforms have shown “lethargy”.

In many cases, it was found that the community guidelines and the list of prohibited content were not easily accessible to the user.

“Some platforms have not fully or partially harmonized their terms of use in the following areas: deceive or mislead as to origin / patently false and false or misleading; impersonation; harmful to a child; pedophilic; invasive of privacy; offensive/harassment. based on gender/race/ethnicity; threatens India’s unity/defence/security/friendly relations/public order; incites crime, money laundering/gambling etc,” sources said.

A final meeting with platforms to assess the issues will be held in seven days, the source said.

Currently, IT regulations require platforms to combat harm and also ensure that platform users are well aware of what is illegal and what is not.

The resulting burden is squarely on the platforms and is covered in the sections dealing with due diligence by intermediaries (Section 3 of the IT Rules).

In Tuesday’s meeting, the platforms were clearly told that such user harms have criminal consequences that are mapped out even under existing laws.

Referring to the case, sources said that the CRPC section allows prosecution on the basis of “forgery”. Similarly, other forms of injury have corresponding provisions in the IPC.

“Any platform that’s not used to doing anything about harm would want to be told that we’re going to take a ‘zero tolerance approach’ to harm… For the slower ones (to act), we’ve given them more time, but we’ve obviously not given them a sense, that we are going to soften the government’s approach to making the internet safe and reliable for all Indians,” the source said.

The board will review within seven days whether the instructions are sufficient or whether new or amended rules are needed.

“Whether we’re just reviewing the advice or the new amended rules, we’ll review after seven days from today. And if necessary, we’ll follow it up with much tougher rules focused on enforcement and creating deterrence for those abusing the platforms,” the sources said.

Deepfakes refer to synthetic or formatted data media that have been digitally manipulated and altered to provide convincingly misleading information or impersonate someone with the help of artificial intelligence.

Recently, several “deepfake” videos targeting leading actors have gone viral, sparking public outrage and concern about the misuse of technology and tools to create duplicate content and fake narratives.