India has announced that it will be drafting new rules to combat the spread of deepfakes and other harmful AI-generated media.
India’s IT Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said that the ministry has held meetings with major social media companies, industry body Nasscom, and academics to discuss the issue and finally reached a consensus that regulation is needed to address the spread of deepfake videos and apps that facilitate their creation.
The announcement comes after an increase in the proliferation of such content on social media platforms in recent weeks.“The companies share our concerns and they understand that deepfakes are very harmful to society,” he said. “They understood the need for much heavier regulation on this, so we agree that we will start drafting the regulation today itself.
”The ministry will be ready with “clear actionable items” on how to combat deepfakes within 10 days, also considering imposing a monetary fine on those who do not comply with the regulation and holding individuals who create such videos accountable. Social media companies will meet with the ministry again in early December to discuss the issue further.
Deepfakes are synthetically generated media that use AI to realistically replace a person’s likeness or voice. While they can be entertaining, there are also ethical concerns about their impact on consent and the spread of misinformation.
The IT ministry’s move to regulate deepfakes follows a statement from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing concerns about deepfake videos.“Deepfakes can spread significantly more rapidly without any checks and they are getting virals within minutes of their uploading. That’s why we need to take some very urgent steps to strengthen trust in society and to protect our democracy,” said Vaishnaw at a press conference. He also recounted an incident in which a hvideo showed a prominent Indian minister talking to citizens to vote for the opposition party.
The new regulation will also focus on strengthening reporting mechanisms for individuals to report such videos and enabling social media companies to take proactive and timely action.
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