New Delhi, April 5
In an effort to address the harms and criminalities being committed through widespread circulation of misinformation and deepfakes powered by AI, the government has once again advised social media platforms on countering unlawful content, including malicious “synthetic media” to curb deepfakes and promptly remove harmful content online.
The IT Ministry has conducted multiple consultations with industry stakeholders/social media platforms to discuss the challenges identified in combating deepfakes and has issued advisories time to time, through which the intermediaries were reminded about compliance with their due-diligence obligations outlined under the IT Rules, 2021.
“The policies are aimed at ensuring a safe, trusted and accountable cyberspace for users in the country,” said Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Jitin Prasada, as a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
The IT Act provides for punishment for various offences considered as cybercrimes such as identity theft, cheating by personation, violation of privacy, publishing/transmitting material that is obscene/ containing sexually explicit act, etc., depicting children in sexually explicit act/transmitting/ browsing child sexual abuse material, etc.
The IT Act and the rules made apply to any information that is generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools or any other technology and those which are generated by users themselves for the purpose of defining offences.