Amid serious concerns over ‘deepfake’ videos, the government is all set to meet social media platforms on the issue, with IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday asserting that the safe harbour immunity clause will not apply if platforms do not take adequate steps to remove deepfakes.
Vaishnaw told reporters that the government had recently issued notices to companies on the deepfake issue, and while the platforms have responded, companies will have to be “more aggressive “ in taking action on such content.
“They are taking steps…but we think many more will have to be taken. And we are very soon going to have a meeting of all platforms…
“Maybe in the next 3-4 days, we’ll call them for brainstorming on that and make sure that platforms make adequate efforts for preventing it (deepfakes), and for cleaning up their platforms,” Vaishnaw said on the sidelines of a conference.
Asked if big platforms like Meta and Google would be called for the meeting, the minister replied in the affirmative.
Vaishnaw also made it clear that the ‘safe harbour immunity’ which platforms currently enjoy under the Information Technology (IT) Act will not be applicable unless they move swiftly to take firm action.
“The safe harbour clause, which most social media platforms have been enjoying…that does not apply if they do not take adequate steps for removing deepfakes from their platforms,” he said.
Internet platforms and social media platforms – the likes of Google, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and others – fall within the ambit of an intermediary. The safe harbour clause protects them for content posted online by their users.