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IT Ministry summons social media companies over deepfakes
The summon to social media companies was sent two days after IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the ministry would call them to brainstorm about deepfakes
The electronics and information technology ministry (MeitY) has summoned officials from major social media companies for a meeting on “Nuisances of deepfake content on Social Media Platform” on November 23.
The summon to social media companies was sent two days after IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the ministry would call them to brainstorm about deepfakes. On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern over misuse of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to create deepfakes and said the media can play a role in raising awareness
““A new crisis is emerging due to deepfakes produced through artificial intelligence. There is a very big section of society which does not have a parallel verification system… This (deepfake) will take us to grave danger and has the potential to spread the fire of dissatisfaction,” Modi said .
A day after a viral fake video of Telugu actor Rashmika Mandanna sparked concerns about the misuse of AI and its potential to further gender violence online, 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.
Also Read: Will hold meets with social media platforms to discuss deepfakes: IT minister Vaishnaw
“Most important is that the immunity which the platforms have, the globally accepted safe harbour provision, that will not be applicable if the platforms do not make adequate efforts [to control deepfakes],” Vaishnaw said. To be sure, only courts can determine if an intermediary can lose its safe harbour protection and subsequently hold it liable for third-party content.
In response to a question about whether the platforms had the technology to spot and take down deepfakes, Vaishnaw had said, “I think they should be able to do it.”
In an advisory issued in February, the ministry had also asked social media platforms to “put in place appropriate technology and processes for identifying information that may violate the provisions of rules and regulations or user agreement”.
