India seeks to regulate deepfakes amid ethical concerns

India is drafting rules to detect and limit the spread of deepfake media, a senior lawmaker said Thursday.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s 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.

“The companies share our concerns and they understood that it’s [deepfakes] are not free speech. They understood that it’s something that’s very harmful to the society,” he said. “They understood the need for much heavier regulation on this, so we agree that we will start drafting the regulation today itself.”

The ministry will be ready with “clear actionable items” 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.

Deepfakes are synthetically generated media, often using AI, to realistically replace a person’s likeness or voice. Though sometimes entertaining, ethical concerns abound regarding consent and potential misinformation. The IT ministry’s move follows the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing concerns about deepfake videos last week.

“The deepfakes can spread significantly more rapidly without any checks and they are getting virals within minutes of their uploading. That’s why we need to take some very urgent steps to strengthen trust in the society and to protect our democracy,” said Vaishnaw at a press conference.