India issues advisory to combat deepfakes and protect users; Know all about it

Deepfakes have become a rising concern lately, with several eminent personalities including celebrities falling victim. There have been several instances where threat actors have even defrauded the victim by using deepfakes or fake voices. While the advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have increased productivity and helped users in their day-to-day lives, the technology has also been misused to carry out such scams and identity theft. After holding dialogues with tech and social media companies, the Government of India has now issued an advisory to the platforms. Know all about it.

Govt advisory against deepfakes

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued an advisory to all intermediaries, notably concerning the rising number of deepfakes. For the unaware, deepfakes are AI-generated videos, images, and audio that are edited or manipulated to make anyone say or do anything that they did not do in real life.

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The Indian govt’s advisory is aimed at ensuring that social media platforms comply with the existing IT rules. It states that all intermediaries must communicate prohibited content, particularly those specified under Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT Rules, ‘clearly and precisely’ to users. This should be done via the terms of service and user agreements. Moreover, users should be made aware of it during the time of first registration, and at regular intervals, such as after every login.

Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “Today, a formal advisory has been issued incorporating the ‘agreed to’ procedures to ensure that users on these platforms do not violate the prohibited content in Rule 3(1)(b) and if such legal violations are noted or reported then the consequences under law will follow. MeitY will closely observe the compliance of intermediaries in the coming weeks and follow this up with further amendments to the IT Rules and/or the law if and when required.”

Past instances

There have been several instances where deepfakes came to light. A deepfake involving actress Rashmika Mandanna surfaced on social media a while ago, whereas other celebrities such as Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt, and Kajol have fallen prey. Notably, there have also been fake AI-generated audio clips of Prime Minister Narendra Modi surfaced online.