Deepfakes must be taken down: Govt

THE GOVERNMENT ON Tuesday made it clear to social media firms like X, Facebook, Instagram etc that pending a new Digital India Act, they should take down content related to deep fakes and similar misinformation from their platforms even in the absence of a formal complaint, under the provisions of Information Technology Act

- JATIN GROVER

• SOCIAL MEDIA FIRMS WARNED OF ACTION

It also warned the firms concerned that failure on their part to act under the provisions, will attract punishment under Section 66D of the IT Act, 2000, which involves punishment for cheating by personation using computer resources and imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of up to ₹1 lakh.

"Overnight a law cannot come up to deal with emerging technologies. Our existing laws provides for enough protection to deal with problems like deep fakes,' a government official said.

The context of issuing the advisory and stressing on the provisions of law, which mandates to act even in the absence of a formal complaint by the aggrieved party, is the deepfake video of actress Rashmika Mandanna which surfaced over social media platforms.

Though the actor has not lodged a formal complaint with the authorities, several notable personalities have pointed out that it's an impersonated video, which has been acknowledged by the actor on the platforms concerned.

Meity has pointed out that as per intermediary rules under the IT Act, social media platforms are supposed to remove misleading content within 36 hours of receiving a report from either a user or government authority.