MeitY plans meeting with social media giants to address deepfake concerns

Following the ministry's advisory to social media companies, urging prompt action on AI-generated content, they have also received an invitation for a meeting with the cabinet minister of the Electronics and Information Technology ministry, Ashwini Vaishnaw. The meeting is scheduled for November 23.

The ministry has been proactive in tackling this issue.

In the advisory, social media intermediaries were asked to ensure that due diligence is exercised and reasonable efforts are made to identify misinformation and deepfakes, and in particular, information that violates the provisions of rules and regulations and/or user agreements.

“Such cases are expeditiously actioned against, well within the timeframes stipulated under the IT Rules 2021, and users are caused not to host such information/content/deep fakes and remove any such content when reported within 36 hours of such reporting,” the advisory said. “Ensure expeditious action, well within the timeframes stipulated under the IT Rules 2021, and disable access to the content / information,” the advisory added.

On November 18, cabinet minister, Vaishnaw said that while intermediaries had responded to the advisory outlining their measures to address deepfakes, the government believed that more substantial efforts were necessary.

As per reports, during the upcoming meeting chaired by Vaishnav, as per reports, the government is set to unveil a standard operating procedure (SoP) guiding social media platforms on how to handle deepfakes within their domains.