Friday, November 24, 2023

Deepfake technology a major cause of concern globally, Deepfake: Govt gives social media platforms 7-day deadline to address issue

Union Minister of State for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said: "We had a very longish meeting with all of the important players on the Internet, the Internet intermediaries. And we have raised the issue of deepfakes with them... I reminded them that way back in October 2022, the government of India has been alerting them to the threat of misinformation and deepfakes, which are part of misinformation." 





Not just India, countries across the world are racing to draw up rules to regulate AI. The United Nations too has created a 39-member advisory body to address issues in the governance of AI. 


The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Friday (Nov 24) announced that it will give social media companies just seven days to align their terms of service and other policies with Indian laws and regulations to address issues related to the hosting of deepfakes on their platforms. 


As the issue continues to evolve, deepfake technology has emerged as a major cause of concern globally. Deepfakes are realistic yet fabricated videos created by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms trained on online footage. They are the manipulation of facial appearance through deep generative methods. 


"The intermediaries today all agreed that the current IT rules under the IT Act provide for adequate compliance requirements on their part to deal with deepfake, even as we speak to future regulations and a future law, which is certainly required, given that our IT Act is 23 years old," the Union Minister said. 


This comes a day after a top minister said that India is drawing up rules for governing deepfakes. A couple of days ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised concerns over the technology. "We plan to complete drafting the regulations within the next few weeks," Union Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had told reporters.   


MoS Chandrasekhar further said, "It was emphasised to them again, to which they have agreed that the current law and the current act and the current rules provide for compliance requirements by the platforms on misinformation, patently false information and deepfakes. This has been agreed to by the platforms." 


He said that the government has asked the companies to align their terms of use with their users to be consistent with the areas that are prohibited on the Indian internet. The platforms have agreed in seven days to ensure that alignment so that every user is aware.  





BJP lawmaker Nishikant Dubey joins issue with Mamata Banerjee


"If Dawood Ibrahim also contests from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, then I think there is a 99% chance that he will win the election. So, if Mamata Ji's theory is correct, this means that Dawood Ibrahim is not a traitor,” BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said.  


“Mahua Moitra didn't provide login credentials to just Darshan Hiranandani. It was logged in from multiple places - Delhi, Bengaluru, San Francisco. This is a big conspiracy. It is the history of the INDI alliance that they like corrupt, traitorous individuals like Dawood Ibrahim." he said.


The West Bengal Chief Minister on Thursday spoke on Mahua Moitra's likely expulsion from the Lok Sabha and said the controversy will boost her chances in next year's general election.


"Mahua Moitra's expulsion from Lok Sabha is being planned. But this will help her before the election. They have planned to chase out Mahua. She will become popular for three months. What she said inside she will say outside. She will hold press conferences every day. What does she lose?" Mamata had said. 


Trinamool MP, Mahua Moitra is facing allegations leveled by BJP leader Nishikant Dubey wherein he accused the TMC MP of taking a bribe from businessman Darshan Hiranandani for "asking questions in Parliament". Moitra denied such claims and sued Dubey and a Supreme Court lawyer.

The Lok Sabha's Ethics Committee has recommended expulsion of Ms Moitra. 











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