Parliament Panel sounds alarm on AI deepfakes, crime-as-a-service; urges tougher regulation for OTTs, social media
The Standing Committee on Home Affairs urges stronger laws, real-time intelligence, and tighter platform accountability as India battles AI-driven fraud, deepfakes, telecom scams, and unchecked OTT content.
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The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has urged sweeping reforms to India’s cyber laws, cautioning that existing gaps leave the country exposed to deepfakes, misuse of artificial intelligence, and unregulated OTT content that may endanger minors.
The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs tabled its 254th report on Cyber Crime – Ramifications, Protection and Prevention in both Houses of Parliament, and highlighted that current legislation makes no distinction between user-generated and AI-generated content.
With deepfakes being weaponised for financial fraud, misinformation, and obscene material, it has recommended specific legal provisions to govern synthetic media. The exhaustive report paints a sobering picture of India’s cyber threat landscape- where crime-as-a-service, AI-driven frauds, weak content regulation, and lapses in platform accountability are converging into one of the nation’s most pressing security challenges.
In the report, tabled on August 20, 2025, the Committee noted that Cybercrime-as-a-Service (CaaS) has transformed the underground economy, mirroring legitimate Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) models. Phishing kits, ransomware packages, AI-based deepfake generators, and even money-laundering services are now available for hire on the dark web.
According to MeitY and CERT-In inputs, this has drastically lowered the entry barrier for criminals, enabling even the technologically ill-equipped to orchestrate large-scale fraud.
Among the most chilling concerns is the misuse of generative AI. The Committee cited cases where individuals were duped into transferring money after video calls with convincing AI-generated replicas of friends or colleagues. These deepfake-driven frauds, nearly impossible to detect with conventional forensic tools, present a fresh challenge to both regulators and investigators.
The Ministry of Home Affairs also flagged the rising role of cryptocurrency and dark web markets, particularly in Southeast Asia, as hotbeds for criminal economies. As India rolls out 5G, the Committee warned that cybercriminals could hijack IoT-linked devices- from smart homes to autonomous vehicles- creating not just financial but physical risks.
To counter these threats, the panel pressed for real-time intelligence systems, ethical AI regulation, cloud auditing, and stronger cross-border enforcement mechanisms. It acknowledged existing efforts like MeitY’s Cyber Surakshit Bharat programme, which has trained over 1,600 CISOs, and the National Centre of Excellence in Cybersecurity that has accelerated 153 startups. But it warned that India’s regulatory framework must evolve much faster to stay ahead of criminals.
A major recommendation was to tighten laws around AI-generated content.
The panel suggested mandating digital watermarks on all media- photos, videos, and graphics- to establish provenance and prevent malicious manipulation. It further urged CERT-In to serve as a central monitoring body issuing deepfake alerts.
Social media intermediaries, OTTs and telecom
The report also took aim at social media intermediaries, highlighting their frequent failure to comply with takedown requests of unlawful or harmful content such as morphed videos, fake profiles, or caste-based hate speech.
The Committee recommended amending the IT Act, 2000 to introduce graded penalties, including fines and even suspension of services for persistent non-compliance, while preserving due process and free speech safeguards.
Another flashpoint is OTT platforms, which the Committee said now surpass cinema in reach, including to minors. Unlike films, OTT content faces no pre-certification. Current rules rely on post-release grievance redressal and self-classification, which the panel found inadequate.
It proposed a Post Release Review Panel of experts to monitor flagged OTT content, enforce cultural sensitivity norms, and impose penalties for violations. It also demanded tighter parental controls, stronger age verification, and regional language classification to protect children and rural audiences.
Further, the Committee commended DoT’s Sanchar Saathi portal and AI-powered initiatives such as the Centralized International Out Roamer (CIOR) system, which blocked 1.35 crore spoofed calls in a single day, reducing incidents by 98%. It also lauded TRAI’s 650 consumer awareness drives. But it pushed for stronger measures against unregistered telemarketers (UTMs), a national blacklist database, and stricter oversight of bulk SMS and VoIP-based phishing campaigns.
Finally, the panel called for stricter offshore advertiser verification to curb fraudulent ads, a unified grievance redressal system with public reporting of complaint statistics, stronger app store compliance, and even the development of an indigenous app store to support Indian startups.
