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Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday said the government is going to issue the amended IT rules in the next seven to eight days. The minister said this comes after the government noticed a “mixed response” from platforms on compliance to the advisory issued on deepfakes.
“We are going to issue new amended IT rules in the next seven to eight days,” news agency ANI quoted the Minister of State for IT and Electronics as saying.
“We have had two rounds of Digital India dialogues with all of the intermediaries. We have drawn their attention to the current rules. We have drawn their attention to the consequences of non-compliance. We have issued an advisory and we have also said that if we are not satisfied with the compliance, we will notify newly amended rules that are much more specific to the issue of misinformation and deep fakes in particular,” he added.
Last month, the government had directed all platforms to comply with the IT rules and mandated companies to inform users in clear and precise terms about prohibited content.
The government talked tough with social media platforms after several ‘deepfake’ videos targeting leading actors, including Rashmika Mandanna, sparked public outrage and raised concerns over the weaponisation of technology for creating doctored content and harmful narratives.
The government has made it clear that any compliance failure would be dealt with strictly and evoke legal consequences.
On Monday, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the government will soon notify tighter rules under the IT Act to ensure compliance by platforms. His statement came after legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar shared a deepfake video featuring him and warned of the consequences of the technology.
Taking to X, Rajeev Chandrasekhar thanked Tendulkar for flagging the deepfake video and said “#DeepFakes and misinformation powered by #AI are a threat to Safety&Trust of Indian users and represents harm & legal violation that platforms have to prevent and takedown”.
Deepfakes refer to synthetic or doctored media that are digitally manipulated and altered to convincingly misrepresent or impersonate someone using a form of artificial intelligence or AI.
With inputs from agencies
