'New Rules To Tackle Deepfakes Soon': Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw Meets Social Media Firms

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw held a meeting with representatives of social media platforms to discuss the issue of deepfakes on Thursday.

Union Minister for Communications and Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw

Source : PTI

Amid rising deepfake videos on social media platforms, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday said the government would bring a new set of regulations soon to tackle such content. Vaishnaw, who held a meeting with representatives of social media platforms to discuss the issue, said deepfakes have emerged as a new threat to democracy, PTI reported.

Addressing the media, Vaishnaw said it was decided in the meeting to focus on four aspects -- detection, prevention, reporting mechanism of deepfakes and awareness.

"Deep fake has emerged as a new threat in the society. We need to take immediate steps. New regulations will be brought and in the coming weeks, efforts will be made to complete the drafting of regulations," ANI quoted Vaishnaw as saying.

"Regulations can be in the form of amending existing rules or bringing in new rules or making a new law, which is the most appropriate way we will work on it," he further said.

Social media companies, NASSCOM, and professors working on artificial intelligence (AI) were also present in the meeting. 

"We have all agreed that within the next about 10 days, we will come up with clear actionable items...All the companies, all the platforms, and the entire industry understood that this is not free speech. They understood that this is something which is really harmful for the society...We will start drafting the regulations today itself. And within a very short time frame, we will have a new set of regulations for deepfake," the Union Minister further said.

Recent Deepfake Incidents In India Raise Concern

The development comes days after deepfake videos of actors Rashmika Mandanna, Katrina Kaif, and Kajol Devgn triggered outrage and it also found a mention by Prime Minister Narendra Modi twice in the past two weeks.

Speaking at the virtual G20 Summit on Wednesday, PM Modi highlighted the negative use of AI and underscored the dangers posed by deepfakes to society and individuals.

"There are growing concerns across the world on the negative use of AI. India's thinking is clear, we have to work together on global regulation of AI," the PM said while asking G20 nations to work jointly on addressing the deepfake issue.

 "Deepfake is a big concern. AI has to be safe for the public," he further said.

Earlier this month, during BJP's 'Diwali Milan' programme, PM Modi said he had come across a morphed video of himself doing Garba.

"I watched my deepfake video in which I am doing garba. But the reality is that I have not done garba after my school life. Someone made my deepfake video," he said.

However, recently a Mumbai-based businessman, a doppelganger of Modi, claimed that it was him playing garba and was not a deepfake video.