Facebook, YouTube Said Warned Against Misuse of Deepfakes by Central Government

The central government has warned social media platforms Facebook and YouTube about deepfakes. Social media platforms including Facebook and YouTube have been told that posting deepfakes and content that spreads obscenity or misinformation is prohibited under the country’s law.

One from Reuters Report Sources have been quoted as saying that Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar has given this warning in a meeting. He said that many social media companies have not updated the terms and conditions for their users despite the rules implemented last year. Rules Under the law, content that is harmful to children, obscene or imitates another person is banned. Chandrashekhar said that these companies should raise awareness about these rules and tell users when they log in that they cannot post such content. Cases of making fake videos of politicians and celebrities with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have increased. Such videos are called deepfakes. The government is preparing to make new regulations against this. Under these regulations, the creator of deepfakes and the platform hosting it can be fined.

Earlier this week, Telecom and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishaw had called deepfakes a threat to democracy. “Deepfakes are a new threat to democracy. This can weaken the credibility of society and its institutions,” Ashwini said after a meeting with various stakeholders. These stakeholders included representatives of social media platforms, software companies’ association NASSCOM and professors associated with the field of AI.

Ashwini had said, “We are starting to make regulations for deepfakes.” He said that the government will work on four points – identifying deepfakes, preventing the spread of such content, strengthening the reporting process and raising awareness on this issue. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also warned about deepfakes. Modi had said that he has asked the ChatGPT team to identify deepfakes and issue warnings when such videos are circulated on the Internet.