The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has proposed draft amendments to the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021, aimed at addressing the risks posed by AI-generated deepfakes and synthetically produced content.
The proposed changes focus on curbing user harm by mandating clear labelling and prominent markers to help users differentiate between synthetic and authentic content, while also increasing accountability for major social media platforms.
The IT Ministry highlighted the growing availability of generative AI tools, which has led to a surge in synthetically generated information, commonly known as deepfakes. These technologies pose significant risks, including the potential to spread misinformation, manipulate elections, impersonate individuals, or cause other forms of user harm.
“Recent incidents of deepfake audio, videos and synthetic media going viral on social platforms have demonstrated the potential of generative AI to create convincing falsehoods – depicting individuals in acts or statements they never made. Such content can be weaponised to spread misinformation, damage reputations, manipulate or influence elections, or commit financial fraud,” stated the explanatory note accompanying the draft on the IT Ministry's website.
Following extensive public consultations and parliamentary discussions, MeitY has drafted amendments to strengthen the due diligence obligations of intermediaries, particularly social media intermediaries (platforms with 50 lakh or more users, such as Meta) and significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs).
The amendments also apply to platforms that facilitate the creation or modification of synthetically generated content. The draft introduces a new definition for “synthetically generated information,” describing it as information that is artificially or algorithmically created, generated, modified, or altered using a computer resource in a way that appears reasonably authentic or true.
Under the proposed rules, significant social media platforms must obtain a user declaration confirming whether uploaded content is synthetically generated. They are also required to implement reasonable and proportionate technical measures to verify these declarations and ensure that such content is clearly labelled or accompanied by a notice indicating its synthetic nature.
The amendments mandate that labels or identifiers be prominently displayed, covering at least 10 per cent of the surface area of visual content or included in the initial 10 per cent of audio content duration. These labels must enable immediate identification of the content as synthetically generated.
Additionally, intermediaries offering tools for creating or modifying synthetic content must ensure that such content is embedded with a permanent unique metadata or identifier. This identifier must be visibly displayed or made audible in a prominent manner, adhering to the 10 per cent visibility or audibility standard. The rules explicitly prohibit intermediaries from modifying, suppressing, or removing these labels or identifiers.
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The amendments also aim to provide statutory protection to intermediaries by allowing them to remove or disable access to synthetically generated content based on reasonable efforts or user grievances. The goal is to promote user awareness, enhance traceability, and ensure accountability while fostering an environment conducive to innovation in AI-driven technologies, according to the IT Ministry.
The draft amendments are open for public feedback and comments until November 6. The IT Ministry emphasised the global and domestic concerns surrounding fabricated or synthetic content, such as images, videos, and audio clips, which are often indistinguishable from authentic content.
Such deepfakes have been used to produce non-consensual intimate or obscene imagery, mislead the public with fabricated political or news content, or perpetrate fraud and impersonation for financial gain. The proposed changes to the IT Rules seek to address these challenges by establishing clear guidelines for identifying and managing synthetically generated content.
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