The Centre, in a major crackdown on deepfake contents on social media, has amended the Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, making it mandatory for social media platforms to take down all such content within three hours, compared to the earlier deadline of 36 hours.
This is the first time AI-generated contents, including deepfake videos, synthetic audio and manipulated visuals, have been brought within the ambit of a formal regulatory framework.
The new rules will come into force from February 20. It will now be mandatory for social digital platforms to identify, label and trace AI content.
All AI-generated or AI-altered content must carry a clear and prominent disclosure visible to users.
Platforms must embed persistent metadata and unique identifiers to enable traceability of the content’s origin and the tools used to create it.
The rules clearly say, once applied, these disclosures cannot be altered, hidden or removed.
However, the rules exclude routine edits like colour correction, noise reduction, compression or translation, as long as they do not change the meaning. Hypothetical or illustrative drafts have been exempted.
Before any content goes live, social media platforms must ensure that users must declare whether it is AI-generated.
Platforms must display automated tools to verify these declarationsby analysing the content’s format, source and characteristics.
The new rules say, if the content is identified as synthetic, visible labelling will be mandatory.
Platforms which knowingly allow unlabelled AI-generated content to remain online will be treated as being failed in their due diligence obligations.
Apart from reducing the compliance deadline for taking down AI-generated content from 36 hours to three hours, other deadlines have also been tightened.
The 15-day window has been reduced to seven days and a 24-hour window has been reduced to 12 hours.
The new rules say, platforms must acknowledge user’s grievances within two hours and resolve them within seven hours.
Misuse of SGI(silicon graphics) for creating child secual abuse content, obscene content, false electronic records, impersonation using a real person’s identity or voice, or explosives-related material will attract action under multiple criminal laws, says the Centre’s order.
The crackdown on deepfake contents is a good decision. It was necessary.
I have been a victim of deepfake contents. There have been several cases in which my fake AI generated voice was superimposed on my videos to sell spurious medicines and ask users to invest money to make big earnings.
In the last few months, I have ensured removal of hundreds of such deepfake videos by obtaining orders from the High Court. But by the time, the court order was obtained, millions of people had watched the deepfake videos.
With the new rules making takedown of deepfake videos within three hours as mandatory, I hope many people will be saved from being cheated by scamsters.
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