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India is drafting rules to detect and limit the spread of deepfake media, a senior lawmaker said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Ashwini Vaishnaw, India\u2019s IT Minister, said the ministry held meetings with all large social media companies and academics earlier in the day and has reached a consensus that a regulation is needed to better combat proliferation and spread of deepfake videos.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe companies share our concerns and they understood that it\u2019s [deepfakes] are not free speech. They understood that it\u2019s something that\u2019s very harmful to the society,\u201d he said. \u201cThey understood the need for much heavier regulation on this, so we agree that we will start drafting the regulation today itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ministry will be ready with \u201cclear actionable items\u201d on how to combat deepfakes in 10 days, he said. The social media companies will do a follow-up meeting with the ministry early December on this issue, he said.<\/p>\n
Deepfakes are synthetically generated media, often using AI, to realistically replace a person\u2019s likeness or voice. Though sometimes entertaining, ethical concerns abound regarding consent and potential misinformation. The IT ministry\u2019s move follows the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing concerns about deepfake videos last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe deepfakes can spread significantly more rapidly without any checks and they are getting virals within minutes of their uploading. That\u2019s why we need to take some very urgent steps to strengthen trust in the society and to protect our democracy,\u201d said Vaishnaw at a press conference.<\/p>\n