India warns Facebook and YouTube to enforce rules to deter deepfakes. According to two people who spoke to Reuters, the Indian government sent a warning on Friday to social media companies such as Facebook (META.O) and YouTube, instructing them to remind users regularly that local laws prevent them from uploading anything that spreads obscenity or disinformation, as well as content that is considered to be “deep fakes.”
The Deputy Minister of Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, delivered the warning at a meeting held behind closed doors. He stated that despite the 2022 guidelines that restrict anything that is “harmful” to children, vulgar, or that “impersonates another person,” many firms have not changed their usage conditions.
Deepfakes are movies that appear authentic but are actually fakes made by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms trained on online content, which is a growing concern. This week, a top minister in India announced that the country is drafting legislation to address these issues.
According to Chandrasekhar, corporations need to do more to make users aware of the regulations by reminding them every time they log in that they are not allowed to upload certain types of information or by sending them reminders.
According to the two people who asked not to be identified since the discussion was confidential, he said he would issue directives compelling them to do so if they did not comply.
According to one of the individuals, during the discussion, the minister referred to it as a “non-negotiable” demand that the Indian government is making.
According to a press release from India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, all platforms have agreed to align their content criteria with the government’s. A request for a response was sent to both Facebook and Chandrasekhar, but neither immediately responded.
Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL.O) Google, is the company that owns YouTube. Google stated that it is dedicated to the responsible use of artificial intelligence and has comprehensive rules and processes to identify and remove harmful content across all its products and platforms.
Recently, the Indian authorities and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have expressed their alarm over the spread of fake news. On Wednesday, during a virtual summit of G20 nations, Prime Minister Modi called on world leaders to work together towards the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), and he highlighted worries about the bad influence that deepfakes have on society.
There is a mad dash by nations worldwide to draft regulations to govern AI. In recent years, India has made it more difficult for social media firms to operate legally within its borders. These businesses view India as one of their most important emerging markets.
The government stated that it was obliged to request content takedowns last year because the corporations did not remove what it regarded as bogus news from their websites. The government reprimanded the companies in private last year.
