India to Take Action Against Deepfakes Prior to Lok Sabha Elections, Expected Amendment to IT Rules within 7 to 10 Days
India’s government will soon introduce changes to information technology (IT) regulations to address the problem of deep counterfeiting, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar told representatives of social media companies at a recent meeting. The amendment has a significant political impact ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Deepfakes can be used to create intimate or embarrassing content that depicts individuals, leading to emotional distress and social harm. Regulations help curb the spread of such harmful content and protect individuals from manipulation or targeting.
Using artificial intelligence tools, deep fakes can also be misused to create misleading political content, such as fabricating speeches or manipulating candidate videos to influence voters and undermine trust in the electoral process. Recognizing the implications of these challenges, the implementation of such provisions could provide certainty to voters and ensure fair and transparent elections by reducing the risk of such content appearing online before and during elections.
On Thursday, Rajeev Chandrasekhar met representatives of Meta, Google/YouTube, ShareChat, Snapchat and Jio, various ministries and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).
Chandrasekhar is said to emphasize the government’s proactive approach in dealing with deep counterfeiting, referring to meetings held between the ministry and industry representatives in November-December. He cited two advisories and two letters sent by the government to urge social media companies to take more effective measures against deeply fake content.
The minister also assured that the government will follow the appropriate procedure and announce the changes in the IT rules within the next 7-10 days.
In November, Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw held discussions with industry stakeholders to formulate regulations specifically for such online content. The discussion discussed the inclusion of watermarking in the content produced by artificial intelligence or the introduction of a marking system.
He then specified that the regulations will be drawn up based on four pillars. These include detecting deep fakes, preventing them (before they are published, before they spread), strengthening the reporting mechanism and raising people’s awareness.
