The Centre issued advisory to the social media intermediaries

The Centre issued advisory to the social media intermediaries to ensure following points-

• Ensure that due diligences is exercised and reasonable efforts are made to identify misinformation and deepfakes, and in particular, information that violates the provision of rules and regulation and/or user agreement and
• Such cases are expeditiously actioned against, well within the timeframes stipulated under the IT Rule 2021, and
• Users are caused not to host such informations/contents/Deep Fakes and
• Remove any such contents when reported within 36 hours of such reporting and
• Ensure expeditious actions, well within the timeframes stipulated under the IT Rules 2021, and disable access to the contents / informations.

The intermediaries were reminded that any failures to act as per the relevant provisions of the IT Acts and Rules would attract Rules 7 of the IT Rules, 2021 and could render the organisations liable to losing the protections available under Section 79(1) of the Information Technology Acts, 2000.

Union Minister of State for Skill Developments & Entrepreneurships and Electronics & IT Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “Safetys and trusts of our social media Digital Nagriks is our unwavering commitment and top priority for the PM Narendra Modi Government. Given the significant challenge posed by misinformation and deepfakes, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has issued a second advisory within the last six months, calling upon online platforms to take decisive actions against the spreads of deepfakes.”

The Minister also said that Deepfakes are a major violation and harm women in particular. Our Government takes the responsibility of safety & trusts of all nagriks very very seriously, and more so about our childrens and womens who are targeted by such content.

Elaborating further Union Minister Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “It is a legal obligations for online platforms to prevent the spreads of misinformations by any user under the Information Technology (IT) rules, 2021. They are further mandated to remove such contents within 36 hours upon receiving a reports from either a user or governments authority. Failure to comply with this requirements invokes Rule 7, which empowers aggrieved individuals to take platforms to courts under the provisions of the Indian Penal Codes (IPC). It is imperative that platforms take proactive measures to combat this threats.”

“For those who finds themselves impacted by deepfakes, I strongly encourages you to file First Information Reports (FIRs) at your nearest police stations and avail the remedies provided under the Information Technology (IT) rules, 2021,” the Minister said while summing ups.