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 deepfakes and posting content that spreads obscenity or misinformation are banned under the country's law.

In a Reuters report, quoting sources, it has been said 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 being implemented last year. Under these rules, content that is harmful to children, obscene or imitating another person is banned. Chandrashekhar said that these companies should increase awareness about these rules and should tell the users when they log in that they cannot post such content. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increased the cases of making fake videos of politicians and celebrities. Such videos are called deepfakes. The government is preparing to make new regulations against this. Under these regulations, fines can be imposed on the platforms that create deepfakes and host them.

Earlier this week, Telecom and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishaw called deepfakes a threat to democracy. “Deepfakes are a new threat to democracy. This can weaken the credibility of the society and its institutions,” Ashwini had said after a meeting with various stakeholders. These stakeholders included representatives of social media platforms, NASSCOM, an organization of software companies, 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 – identification of deepfakes, preventing the spread of such content, strengthening the reporting process and raising awareness on the issue. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also warned about deepfakes. Modi had told that he has asked the team of ChatGPT to identify deepfakes and issue a warning when such videos are circulated on the internet.