Deepfake row: Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw meets social media platforms, promises new regulations

Talking to presspersons, Vaishnaw said, “Deep fake has emerged as a new threat in the society. We need to take immediate steps,” he said.

The union minister added, “We have to focus on four aspects-detection, prevention, reporting mechanism of deep fake and awareness needs to be increased. New regulations will be brought and in the coming weeks, efforts will be made to complete the drafting of regulations,” PIB reported.

Vaishnaw said the social media companies have agreed upon the need for clear actionable work in the areas.

Representatives of social media companies, NASSCOM, and professors working on Artificial intelligence (AI) also attended the meeting.

“We will start drafting regulation today itself, and within a short time we will have a new set of regulations for deepfake; this could be in the form of amending existing framework or bringing new rules, or new law,” PIB quoted Vaishnaw as saying.

Vaishnaw added they would meet next during the first week of December to discuss follow-up action on decisions taken on Thursday and elements to be included in the draft regulation.

Deepfakes refer to synthetic or doctored media that is digitally manipulated and altered to convincingly misrepresent or impersonate someone, using a form of artificial intelligence.

Recently, several ‘deepfake’ videos targeting leading actors went viral, including celebrities like Rashmika Mandanna, Kajol and most recently Sara Tendulkar, sparking public outrage and raising concerns over the misuse of technology and tools for creating doctored content and fake narratives.