India
Law to regulate deepfake manipulation coming very soon, with penalties for creators and platforms: Vaishnaw
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NEW DELHI: Expressing serious concern over the dangers from deepfake, in the face of growing instances where the face or body of an individual has been digitally altered and tampered with for malicious intent through the use of AI, the government on Thursday promised a regulation on the matter very soon and directed social media and tech companies to take immediate steps against the menace, or be prepared to face penal action.
IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw met representatives from top social media companies such as Google, Meta and X, apart from industry association Nasscom, and asked them to immediately take steps to identify such content which has been a matter of concern across the world.
Vaishnaw said the government will look at measures to expose synthetic content, including through watermarking of AI-generated videos, deepfake detection, and rules against data bias.
“Deepfakes have emerged as a new threat to democracy. These (can) weaken trust in society and its institutions,” Vaishnaw said after meeting the stakeholders that also included professionals from the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
“We will start drafting the regulations today itself and within a very short timeframe, we will have a separate regulation for deepfakes,” he said. The government intends to come out with actionable items in four key areas — detection of deepfakes; preventing the spread of such content; strengthening reporting mechanisms; and spreading awareness on the issue.
“There is a need to take steps on this at the earliest whether they are legal, regulatory or technical. We need to take all sorts of steps.” Asked if there will be a change in the existing IT rules or a new law may be drafted, he said, “We can bring this in the form of making amendments to the existing rules, or create new rules, or we can bring a new law.”
On penalties, the Minister said, “When we will draft the regulation, we will also be looking at penalties on both the person who has uploaded or created a deepfake video, and also against the platform.”
Vaishnaw said deepfake advertisements or misleading promotions are a threat that Indian society is facing currently. “The use of social media ensures that deepfakes can spread rapidly in a more significant manner without any check and go viral. This is why we need to take urgent steps to strengthen trust in society and our democracy.”
Deepfakes shot into prominence after actor Rashmika Mandanna’s digitally-created face was found to have been used in an embarrassing video earlier this month. Some other celebrities including Katrina Kaif and Kajol were also reported to be victims of deepfake.
Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also warned about the threat deepfakes pose.
On Saturday, Vaishnaw had warned that social media platforms would lose the immunity they enjoy under the ‘safe harbour’ clause in the IT Act if they fail to take measures against deepfakes.
The next meeting on the matter will be held in the first week of December.
“All the companies have shared our concern. They understand that this is not free speech, that this is something very harmful… they have understood the need for much heavier regulation.”
IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw met representatives from top social media companies such as Google, Meta and X, apart from industry association Nasscom, and asked them to immediately take steps to identify such content which has been a matter of concern across the world.
Vaishnaw said the government will look at measures to expose synthetic content, including through watermarking of AI-generated videos, deepfake detection, and rules against data bias.
“Deepfakes have emerged as a new threat to democracy. These (can) weaken trust in society and its institutions,” Vaishnaw said after meeting the stakeholders that also included professionals from the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
“We will start drafting the regulations today itself and within a very short timeframe, we will have a separate regulation for deepfakes,” he said. The government intends to come out with actionable items in four key areas — detection of deepfakes; preventing the spread of such content; strengthening reporting mechanisms; and spreading awareness on the issue.
“There is a need to take steps on this at the earliest whether they are legal, regulatory or technical. We need to take all sorts of steps.” Asked if there will be a change in the existing IT rules or a new law may be drafted, he said, “We can bring this in the form of making amendments to the existing rules, or create new rules, or we can bring a new law.”
On penalties, the Minister said, “When we will draft the regulation, we will also be looking at penalties on both the person who has uploaded or created a deepfake video, and also against the platform.”
Vaishnaw said deepfake advertisements or misleading promotions are a threat that Indian society is facing currently. “The use of social media ensures that deepfakes can spread rapidly in a more significant manner without any check and go viral. This is why we need to take urgent steps to strengthen trust in society and our democracy.”
Deepfakes shot into prominence after actor Rashmika Mandanna’s digitally-created face was found to have been used in an embarrassing video earlier this month. Some other celebrities including Katrina Kaif and Kajol were also reported to be victims of deepfake.
Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also warned about the threat deepfakes pose.
On Saturday, Vaishnaw had warned that social media platforms would lose the immunity they enjoy under the ‘safe harbour’ clause in the IT Act if they fail to take measures against deepfakes.
The next meeting on the matter will be held in the first week of December.
“All the companies have shared our concern. They understand that this is not free speech, that this is something very harmful… they have understood the need for much heavier regulation.”
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