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The government will lay down rules on deepfakes by notifying amendments to the IT Rules in the next seven to eight days, minister of state for electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a press conference at the BJP office on Tuesday. He cited social media companies’ lack of compliance with the advisories issued by the MeitY.
“We had also said that if we are not satisfied with the compliance [with the extant Rules and advisories], we will notify newly amended rules which are much more specific to the issue of misinformation and deepfakes in particular. … We are going to issue the new, amended IT Rules over the next 7-8 days,” he said.
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On January 11, he had told social media intermediaries that the amendments would be notified in the following seven to ten days, HT had reported.
“We have clearly said that it is the platforms’ responsibility to remove and detect deepfakes. The platforms must not allow any user on their platform who misuses the platform through deepfakes or anything else. This is the platforms’ core responsibility, “ he said. The government will take legal action against the platforms who fail to do so, he said. “We have clearly said that this is not something that can be done on a ‘best efforts’ basis. These are all illegalities, harms,” he said.
According to rule 3(1)(b) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, all intermediaries must make “reasonable efforts … to cause the users of its computer resource” to not upload, host, store, etc. eleven kinds of content that includes content that violates intellectual property rights, impersonates another person, is obscene or pornographic or harmful to child, and poses a threat to national security.
HT has learnt that Chandrasekhar has asked the ministry’s legal division to amend this provision to call these eleven kinds of content “prohibited content” and to make it obligatory for all intermediaries to ensure such content is not available on their services. Legal experts within the ministry have contested this idea as it violates Article 19(2) of the Indian constitution, three people aware of the discussions told HT on the condition of anonymity.
Article 19(2) lays down reasonable restrictions that can be imposed on the fundamental rights, including the right to freedom of speech and expression, granted under Article 19(1). These reasonable restrictions are limited to reasons related to “the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with Foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence”. Rule 3(1)(b) disallows content beyond that.
This issue was discussed within the ministry before the IT Rules were notified in February 2021 and rejected internally, one of the people cited above said.
Chandrasekhar also said that if platforms do not take deepfakes seriously, the government could block them in India in public interest.
During the January 11 meeting, Chandrasekhar had said the ministry is contemplating introducing a “bystander clause” to the IT Rules, under which the intermediaries would have to help users file FIRs against illegal content, HT had earlier reported.
Under Section 19 of the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act, 2012, any person, “who has apprehension” or knowledge that a child has been abused, must report it to the local police or Special Juvenile Police Unit. Failure to do so attracts an imprisonment of up to six months and/or a fine, under Section 21 of the Act. It is currently not clear how this “bystander rule” from POCSO Act will be appropriated within the IT Rules.
Chandrasekhar also said that the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules had been delayed and will be out for consultation this month. “Consultation will be about a month’s time. Because the elections are coming up, whether it will be notified before elections or not, I cannot predict that,” he said. In December, he had told companies in a meeting that the rules would be released for a seven-day consultation within December itself, HT had earlier reported.
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