Crackdown on deepfakes: Govt to aid citizens in filing FIR against social media platforms
Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said social media platforms have been given seven days to align their terms of use as per IT rules
The Indian government plans to appoint a senior officer to take appropriate action against deepfake videos on social media amid rising concerns over content that targets public figures.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) will develop a website on which users can flag violations of rules governing Information Technology, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday. “Meity will assist users to notify it about violation of IT rules and assist them in filing a First Information Report (FIR),” he said in a statement. A police complaint will be registered against the intermediary. Action will be taken against the entity that posted the content if its identity becomes known, the minister said.
Chandrasekhar said social media platforms have been given seven days to align their terms of use as per the IT rules. “From today onwards, there is zero tolerance for violation of IT rules.”
PM Modi’s concern
Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged the misuse of artificial intelligence for creating deepfake videos – which blur the line between reality and fiction -- and called it a “big concern”.
The government has said that the creation and circulation of deepfakes will carry a penalty of Rs 1 lakh and three years in prison.
Meity earlier this month issued an advisory to social media platforms underlining the legal provisions that cover deepfakes and the penalties their creation and circulation attract.
Chandrasekhar said offending content must be removed within 36 hours of their reporting, and access to the content or information must be disabled. Such content will cover child sexual abuse material and “various other categories of content that are prohibited on the Indian Internet”.
A meeting was held earlier on Friday with all of the key players on the Internet including Google, Facebook and YouTube as well as Internet intermediaries.
The Union minister also hinted at a revised law, pointing out that the Indian IT Act was 23 years old.