Social media platforms get 7-day deadline to address deepfakes

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will be giving social media platforms seven days to align their terms of service and other policies with Indian laws in order to address the hosting of deepfakes on these platforms. This decision was conveyed to social media platforms following a meeting with these platforms on the issue of deepfakes. Going forward, the government will be taking action on 100 percent of violations under the IT Rules.  

Deepfakes could be subject to action under the current IT Rules, particularly Rule 3(1)(b), which mandates the removal of 12 types of content within 24 hours of receiving user complaints, said Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar. 

"They are further mandated to remove such content within 24 hours upon receiving a report from either a user or government authority. Failure to comply with this requirement invokes Rule 7, which empowers aggrieved individuals to take platforms to court under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)," the minister further said. 

"For those who find themselves impacted by deepfakes, I strongly encourage you to file First Information Reports (FIRs) at your nearest police station," said Chandrasekhar, adding that the IT Ministry will help aggrieved users in filing FIRs in relation to deepfakes. 

India is mulling regulation to tame the spread of deepfakes and other user harm that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can bring along.