Comply with IT Rules: MeitY issues second advisory on deepfakes to social media platforms

Earlier in November, Ministry for Electronics and Information Technology sent an advisory to platforms urging them to comply to IT Rules

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on December 26 issued a second advisory to all social media platforms, urging them to comply with the Information Technology (IT) Rules amid escalating concerns surrounding deepfakes and artificial intelligence-generated misinformation.

This advisory comes after two meetings that Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar held with the industry, whose attendees included social media platforms, IT companies, lawyers and so on.

The advisory stated that users should be made aware of the type of content that is prohibited from publishing under the IT Rules.

The advisory said, "The content not permitted under the IT Rules, in particular those listed under Rule 3(1)(b) must be clearly communicated to the users in clear and precise language including through its terms of service and user agreements and the same must be expressly informed to the user at the time of first-registration and also as regular reminders, in particular, at every instance of login and while uploading/sharing information onto the platform.”

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Under the IT Rules, Rule 3(1)(b) mandates intermediaries to communicate their rules, regulations, privacy policy, and user agreement in the user’s preferred language. The rules also states that platforms are obliged to ensure "reasonable efforts" to prevent users from hosting, displaying, uploading, modifying, publishing, transmitting, storing, updating, or sharing any information related to the 11 listed user harms or content prohibited on digital intermediaries.

The advisory also said that digital intermediaries must ensure users are informed about penal provisions, including those in the IPC and the IT Act 2000, in case of Rule 3(1)(b) violations.

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Earlier in November, MeitY sent an advisory to platforms, including social media companies reminding them that they are legally obliged under IT Act 2000 and IT Rules 2021, to remove such content from their platforms.

On December 26, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated, “Misinformation represents a deep threat to the safety and trust of users on the Internet. Deepfake which is misinformation powered by AI, further amplifies the threat to safety and trust of our Digital Nagriks."

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"On November 17, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi alerted the country to the dangers of deepfakes and post that, the Ministry has had two Digital India Dialogues with all the stakeholders of the Indian Internet to alert them about the provisions of the IT Rules notified in October 2022, and amended in April 2023 that lays out 11 specific prohibited types of content on all social media intermediaries & platforms," he added.