Social media platforms will not get protection if steps are not taken against deepfakes: Vaishnav

Union Information Technology (IT) Minister Ashwini Vaishnav on Saturday said the government will soon discuss the deepfake issue with social media platforms and if the platforms do not take adequate steps in this regard, they will be asked to seek protection under the ‘Safe Harbor’ immunity clause of the IT Act. not available. Digitally altering a person’s face or body in a video is called deepfake. These videos made with machine learning and artificial intelligence can easily deceive anyone. Vaishnav told reporters that the government had recently issued a notice to companies on the deepfake issue and the platforms also responded. But companies will have to be more aggressive in taking action against such content, he said. “They are taking steps…but we feel many more steps need to be taken,” Vaishnav told reporters.

..and we are going to hold a meeting of all the forums very soon…maybe in the next 3-4 days. We will call them to brainstorm on this and ensure that the platforms do enough to stop it (deepfakes) and clean up their systems.” When asked whether big platforms like Meta and Google would be called for the meeting, the minister replied in the affirmative.

Vaishnav also clarified that the ‘safe harbor immunity’ that platforms currently enjoy under the IT Act will not apply unless they take adequate action. Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had warned that deepfakes created by artificial intelligence (AI) could cause a major crisis and create discontent in the society. He urged the media to raise awareness and educate people about its misuse. Recently, several deepfake videos targeting prominent actors went viral, sparking outrage.

Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.