After Rashmika Mandanna’s deepfake video row, IT minister’s 7-day deadline for social media
Minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday said the government will assist citizens in filing FIR against social media platforms for violation of IT rules in case they are aggrieved from objectionable content like deepfakes.
The Union minister also said social media platforms have been given seven days time to align their terms of use, as per the IT rules.
The ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) will develop a platform on which users can notify about IT rule violations by social media platforms, Chandrasekhar told reporters after a meeting with social media platforms.
“The Meity will assist users to very easily notify it about violation of IT rules and assist them in filing FIRs,” the minister said.
“From today onwards there is zero tolerance for violation of IT rules,” Chandrasekhar made it clear.
Chandrasekhar also said that under Rule 7, an officer will be nominated who will be entrusted with building a mechanism where users can put in their complaints regarding deepfakes.
“The Rule Seven officer will also be a person who will create a platform where it will be very easy for citizens to bring to the attention of the government of India their notices or allegations or reports of violation of law by the platforms. And the Rule Seven officer will take that digital platform information and respond accordingly. So we’ll make it very simple for the citizen to report violations of law by platforms to the government…” he said.
The minister also said the FIR will be registered against the intermediary and if they disclose the details from where the content has originated then the FIR will be filed against the entity that has posted the content.
Deepfakes are realistic yet fabricated videos created by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms trained on online footage.
Videos have sparked massive worry about fake videos targeting celebrities and the power of AI to create deepfakes that can mislead the world.
Deepfake video of Rashmika Mandanna
The Delhi Police on Thursday said they have got vital clues in its probe into the case pertaining to the deepfake video of actor Rashmika Mandanna and are verifying them through technical analysis. The viral video shows a woman dressed in a black workout onesie inside an elevator. Her face has been edited using AI to resemble Mandanna.
As part of technical analysis, officials are identifying all the IP addresses from where the video was uploaded and are trying to trace the address from where the video was first uploaded on the internet, an official said.
The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) of Delhi Police on November 11, had registered an FIR against unidentified people in connection with the case after the Delhi Commission for Women sent a notice to the city police.
IT ministry’s letters to social media platforms
Ever since a fake video of Mandanna went viral, the government has been very vocal about tackling deepfakes. The IT ministry had sent two letters to all social media platforms reminding them of their responsibility to weed out misinformation and deepfakes as mandated by Indian law, HT had reported earlier.
Earlier on Thursday, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw met social media platforms on the issue. Terming deepfakes as a new threat to democracy, he said the government will come up with new regulations soon to tackle deepfakes.
The minister said that companies have agreed on the need for clear actionable work in areas such as detection, prevention, strengthening of reporting mechanisms, and raising user awareness.
Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged the misuse of artificial intelligence for creating ‘deepfakes, and said the media must educate people about this crisis in making.
Modi said deepfakes are one of the biggest threats that the Indian system is facing at the moment and have the potential to cause chaos in society.