The rapid rise of deepfake technology, which allows for the manipulation of faces, voices, and other traits to create hyper-realistic digital forgeries, has raised serious concerns in India. In response, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has proposed draft amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, to ensure greater accountability in the digital space.
The amendments aim to make it mandatory for online platforms to label synthetic content generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The move comes amid growing concerns over AI-generated deepfake videos and images, which have begun circulating on social media, often with harmful intent.
The proposed amendments define “synthetically generated information” as content that is “artificially or algorithmically created, modified, or altered in a way that appears reasonably authentic or true.” The key change would require all synthetic content, including images, videos, and audio, to be labelled clearly.
For visual content, the label must cover at least 10% of the surface area of the display, while for audio content, the label must appear during the first 10% of the content’s duration. Social media platforms classified as “significant social media intermediaries” will be required to ask users to declare whether the content they are uploading is synthetic and ensure verification using automated tools or other technical mechanisms.
This move follows similar regulatory efforts in other countries. In 2023, the UK introduced the Online Safety Act, which criminalised the sharing of deepfake intimate images. In the US, the Take It Down Act mandates the removal of non-consensual explicit content, including deepfake material, within two days of notification.
The issue of deepfakes became particularly prominent in India in 2023, after a fake video emerged of actress Rashmika Mandanna. Several Indian celebrities, including Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and others, have already sought legal action against the misuse of their identities in AI-generated content.
This concern over digital forgeries has led to several injunctions for the removal of such content from various platforms.
The IT Ministry has opened up the proposed amendments for public feedback, with a deadline for responses set for November 6. If the amendments are passed, India would join a growing list of countries seeking to tackle the risks posed by deepfake technology. Given the rise in internet usage across the country, with 954.4 million users as of March 2024, the importance of regulating AI-generated content has never been clearer.