Rules on deepfakes likely in 7-10 days, Centre tells tech firms

The government will lay down rules on deepfakes by notifying amendments to the IT Rules in the next seven to 10 days, minister of state for electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar told social media companies on Thursday, citing their purported lack of action on such content, a person aware of the matter said.

The meeting, attended by representatives from Meta, Google/YouTube, ShareChat, Snap and Jio, along with officials from multiple ministries and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), was called to discuss deepfakes, a problem the administration has lately become sensitive about, especially since the Prime Minister brought it up in November.

Chandrasekhar, according to a person aware of the discussions who asked not to be named, referred to three meetings held between the ministry and the industry between late November and early December, two advisories and two letters sent by the government to improve action on such content when asked by a Meta representative whether there will be any public consultation before the notification.

HT reported on January 6 the three main amendments related to deepfakes that the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) was considering. These include proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 that will define deepfakes, expand the definition of a “grievance”, and make it obligatory for all intermediaries to remind users of disallowed content under rule 3(1)(b) every 15 days in clear and precise language.

Also Read | Remove misinfo, deepfakes: MeitY to intermediaries

In addition, HT has learnt, that Chandrasekhar wants the IT Rules to define “misinformation” as well.

The meeting was attended by chairperson of the NCPCR Priyank Kanoongo, who has separately summoned YouTube’s head of government affairs and public policy in India, Mira Chatt, over trending online challenges on YouTube that portray “potentially indecent acts involving mothers and sons”.

During the meeting on Friday, Kanoongo told the social media companies that they should promote positive content that is child-friendly and does not cause distraction. He told the companies not to tell NCPCR to advertise to raise awareness on these harms since NCPCR does not have money, the person cited above said.

The meeting was attended by multiple officials from Meity, NCPCR and the ministry of women and child development.

The question of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on social media services too came up and Chandrasekhar said the ministry is contemplating introducing a “bystander clause” to the IT Rules, under which these digital companies will have to help users file FIRs against illegal content.

A representative from ShareChat said that this was not financially feasible as it would divert time, human and financial resources towards this.

A representative from YouTube told Chandrasekhar that the video sharing platform was already in compliance and were reporting CSAM to the relevant authorities. Chandrasekhar said the steps were not enough, and they would have to file FIRs as well. Kanoongo said that there was a provision to that effect under POCSO as well but HT could not ascertain which provision that was.

Representatives from Meta and YouTube did not respond to requests for a comment till the time of going to print.

In the past, the junior IT minister has spoken about plans where the government could help affected users file police cases. After the November 24 meeting, Chandrasekhar told reporters: “A Rule 7 officer has been nominated and the process to invoke Rule 7 will be done whenever platforms are non-compliant with the rules. And that will open up for those who are aggrieved by this [and can] file FIRs and Meity will assist with a platform that will help the users very easily notify Meity about violations of Rule 3(1)(b). Meity will design a mechanism to help with FIR filing in a smooth manner,” he said.

After the first meeting on the issue on November 23, Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that the government would bring in a new regulation to deal with deepfakes and synthetic content online even if the form of the regulation at that time was undetermined.

A day later, Chandrasekhar told the intermediaries that while the extant laws are enough to deal with the issue of deepfakes, the government does not want to foreclose the possibility of a new regulation, if the need arises.