Day After PM Raises Concerns on Deepfakes, IT Minister Says Govt to Meet Social Media Platforms

Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday said the government will soon meet social media platforms on the deepfake issue and asserted that the safe harbour immunity clause will not apply if platforms do not take adequate steps to remove deepfakes.

Vaishnaw said that the government had recently issued a notice to companies on the deepfake issue, and the platforms responded but added that the firms will have to be more aggressive in taking action on such content.

“They are taking steps…but we think that many more steps will have to be taken. And we are very soon going to have a meeting of all the platforms…Maybe in the next 3-4 days, we’ll call them for brainstorming on that and make sure that platforms make adequate efforts for preventing it (deepfakes), and cleaning up their system,” Vaishnaw said.

Asked if big platforms like Meta and Google would be called for the meeting, the minister replied in the affirmative.

The statement comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concerns over the deepfakes and cautioned that the artificial intelligence (AI) technology can lead to a big crisis and stoke discontent in society.

“In a diverse society like ours, deepfakes can cause a big crisis and even stoke the fire of discontent as people generally trust anything associated with the media in the same way anyone clad in ‘gedua’ (saffron) tends to get respect from others,” the prime minister said.

“There is a very big section of society which does not have a parallel verification system,” Modi added.

Vaishnaw also made it clear that the safe harbour immunity that platforms currently enjoy under the IT Act will not be applicable unless they take adequate action.

“The safe harbour clause, which most social media platforms have been enjoying…that does not apply if they do not take adequate steps for removing deepfakes from their platforms,” he said.

Recently, several ‘deepfake’ videos targeting leading actors went viral, sparking outrage and raising concerns over the misuse of technology and tools for creating fake content and narratives.

Earlier this month, a viral deepfake video of actress Rashmika Mandanna brought the spotlight on the issue of AI deepfakes and the perils of the unregulated access of the AI technology. Mandanna’s morphed video left celebrities in shock with many, including actors Amitabh Bachchan, Keerthy Suresh, Mrunal Thakur, Ishaan Khatter and Naga Chaitanya calling for legal action.

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has also called out social media platforms for their inability to handle content containing deep fakes and misinformation.

Deepfakes are a form of manipulation that uses Artificial Intelligence technology to create highly convincing fake content, in the form of images or videos. Tools such as AI, photoshop, machine learning and others available online are used to create deep fake videos, clips and other content.

The AI generated fake contents are designed to appear as if they were created by or feature real individuals when, in fact, they are entirely fake.