IT Min Rajeev Chandrasekhar warns social platforms to act against Deepfakes ahead of 2024 General Election

Rajeev Chandrasekhar has issued a warning to social media companies, indicating that they will be held accountable for AI-generated deepfakes posted on their platforms. The Minister of State for Electronics and IT stressed the importance of clear and explicit rules, asserting that social media companies will be responsible for content created through deepfake technology. India, with its large online population of 870 million internet users and 600 million social media users, is gearing up for the 2024 general elections, which, reports have touted will be one of the biggest targets for AI-generated misinformation. In an interview to the Financial Times, Minister Chandrasekhar said, “We are the world’s largest democracy [and] we are obviously deeply concerned about the impact of cross-border actors using disinformation, using misinformation, using deepfakes to cause problems in our democracy.” “We have been alert to this earlier than most countries because it impacts us in bad ways much more than smaller countries,” he added. Chandrasekhar emphasized that India has been alert to the dangers posed by deepfakes earlier than most countries, acknowledging the significant impact misinformation and disinformation can have on its democracy. The warning follows remarks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is seeking re-election for a third term, and aligns with India’s regulatory efforts to influence companies serving one of the world’s largest populations of internet users. Researchers and governments worldwide have expressed concerns about the growing threat of deepfakes, which use AI tools to create convincing fake images, videos, and audio. On December 26, an advisory from New Delhi was issued to various social media and messaging platforms operating in India, such as YouTube, X, WhatsApp, Telegram, Snap, and the local social network Koo. The advisory urged tech companies to adhere to Indian laws regarding illegal content and explicitly state their compliance in their terms of service and user agreements. Furthermore, the 2021 IT rules of India prohibit content considered harmful to children, posing a threat to national security, spreading misinformation, and imposing other limitations on free speech. Minister Chandrasekhar also said that people made the mistake of conflating the US, where First Amendment rights were “absolute and unconditional”, with the rest of the world, including India. Chandrasekhar also highlighted that India’s approach lies between the laissez-faire attitude in the US and the more citizen-oriented approach in Europe. The minister emphasized that India is encouraging innovation while simultaneously aiming to protect small businesses and users. “We are actually creating a form of tech regulation that is in between the US and Europe,” said the minister. “The US leaves it completely to markets; Europe does it completely citizen-oriented; and we are saying that we love innovation, we will encourage innovation, but we want to protect our small businesses and users, he added. India, in the past has issued several advisories to social media and messaging platforms, demanding compliance with Indian laws on illegal content, particularly focusing on misinformation, deepfakes, and content harmful to children. (With inputs from agencies)