The government will in 10 days issue draft rules to tackle deepfake videos and images, said Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday, proposing to tackle the menace with penalties on creators and platforms.
“Today we had discussion with companies which are leaders in AI (artificial intelligence) tools, Nasscom, academicians who are well known in this space and we all agreed that within the next 10 days we will come up with clear actionable items on four pillars in a very structured way,” he said.
The government is considering penalising persons who upload or create deepfakes and platforms that host such content.
Vaishnaw said that the immediate “four pillars” of focus will be detecting deepfakes and misinformation; preventing their spread, strengthening reporting mechanisms, and creating awareness.
“All companies and all the platforms and the industry shared our concern. They understood that this is not free speech, and this is something which is harmful for society. They understand the need for a heavier regulation for this. We will start drafting the regulation today itself.”
In the past few weeks, deepfake videos have emerged on social media of celebrities and politicians.
Vaishnaw said technology can detect deepfakes, but miscreants have found a way around watermarking and labelling of videos and images. The new regulations will be applicable on all deepfake videos shown in India.
First Published: Nov 23 2023 | 1:52 PM IST