Davos 2024: Going forward India will have stronger regulations on deepfakes, says Ashwini Vaishnaw

Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw (L) and Moneycontrol's Chandra R Srikanth (R) at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 18.

As the menace of deepfakes rise on social media platforms, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on January 18 said that the Indian government would consider stricter regulation to address the issue.

Speaking to Moneycontrol on the sidelines of World Economic Forum in Davos, Vaishnaw said, "During our conversations with leaders across the world, practically everybody shared concerns regarding deepfakes. I think going forward we will have to look at very stronger regulations."

"We really need to now move to a policy framework in which the social media platforms, start taking responsibility for what they are publishing," Vaishnaw said.

However, the minister said that, with General Elections around the corner, the government will now work on the existing framework to tackle deepfakes. "With elections around the corner, at this point of time we are working with the existing regulatory framework," he said.

The Indian government is preparing to amend the Information Technology Rules to direct social media companies to amend their terms and conditions so that it aligns with India's policies.

This comes after the Indian government sent multiple advisories to social media platforms on deepfakes, and Minister for State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar noted that there has been mixed compliance to these advisories.

"We will wait and see the compliance of the advisory. If we find that there is still some noncompliance or partial compliance, we will follow it up and notify new rules where we will prescribe social media companies to mandatorily amend their terms and conditions and align with the said rules," Chandrasekhar had said on January 16.