On 21st November 2024, the Delhi High Court issued an order directing the Central Government to nominate members to the committee constituted by the Government to address issues pertaining to deepfakes.
To provide context, the Delhi High Court has been hearing two petitions namely Chaitanya Rohilla v. Union of India [W.P.(C) 15596/2023] and Rajat Sharma v. Union of India [W.P.(C) 6560/2024], filed against the unregulated proliferation of deepfake technology. In these pleas, the petitioners had requested the Court to direct the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“MeitY”) to identify and block platforms and mobile apps that facilitate the creation of deepfakes. In October 2024, the Delhi High Court asked the Government to furnish a status report providing the details of the Government’s efforts to tackle deepfakes and inform the Court about any committees formed to recommend solutions to this issue.
In compliance with the Court’s direction, the MeitY submitted a status report dated 21st November 2024 informing the Court that the MeitY, inter alia, in 2023, constituted an ‘Advisory Group on AI for India-Specific Regulator AI Framework’ and also constituted a sub-committee for the development of AI governance guidelines. Further, on 20th November 2024, the MeitY constituted a ‘Committee on matters related to the issue of deepfakes’.
The petitioners submitted that each day’s delay in the detection and removal of deepfakes causes significant hardship to the general public and also requested that their suggestions be considered by the Committee on deepfakes.
The Delhi High Court agreed with the petitioners and directed the Government to nominate names to the Committee on deepfakes within a week and that the Committee must examine and consider the suggestions of the petitioners, the regulations and the statutory framework in other countries, and also invite and hear the experiences and suggestions of a few stakeholders such as intermediary platforms, telecommunication service providers, victims of deepfakes and the websites that deploy deepfake technologies. The Court also directed MeitY to submit its report as expeditiously as possible and preferably by February 2025.
Our Take
There has been a global increase in the use of AI-generated deepfake content and India is no exception. In the past two years, India has witnessed a significant surge in deepfake cases. As per a McAfee survey, 75% of Indians present online and surveyed by them have viewed deepfake content between 2023 and 2024 and as per McAfee’s Global Festive Shopping Survey, 45% of Indian respondents have been subjected to deepfake shopping scams.
Various cases have been filed before the courts pertaining to the production of deepfake videos of celebrities. Even regulatory bodies have been targeted. Recently, the Reserve Bank of India issued a press release informing people about the fake videos, featuring its top officials, circulating on social media.
The Government has been cognisant of these instances and has been issuing advisories regularly, particularly to social media intermediaries, citing the provisions of the extant law that would be violated in the creation, dissemination, and hosting of such deepfake videos.
Interestingly, the Government had in 2023 taken steps towards specifically regulating the dissemination of deepfakes. As per a press release dated 23 November 2023, MeitY had held a meeting on deepfake where Minister Railways, Communications and Electronics & IT, Mr. Ashwini Vaishnaw, had interacted with representatives from academia, industry bodies and social media companies on the need to ensure an effective response to deepfake. During the meeting, MeitY and the stakeholders had identified 4 pillars on which action needs to be taken namely (i) ‘Detection’ of content before and after posting the content, (ii) ‘Prevention’ of propagation of deepfake content, (iii) making available effective and expeditious ‘Reporting’ and grievance redressal mechanism, and (iv) creating mass ‘Awareness’ on the issue of deepfake. Further, as per the press release, MeitY had also commenced the assessment and drafting of regulations needed to curb deepfakes, with immediate effect and sought to invite public comments on the MyGov portal.
While, in 2024, there were also reports of the Government’s plans to introduce the “Digital India Bill”, which would replace the Information Technology Act, 2000, to regulate AI-generated deepfake videos, the Bill or its draft has not seen the light of the day. Given the uncertainty around the introduction of the Bill, there is a need to examine the issue of deepfakes and curb the dissemination of misinformation. This need has been acknowledged by the Delhi High Court as well which has pushed the Government to take tangible steps to understand matters related to deepfakes and also involve all stakeholders including the intermediaries on whose platform the content would be published.
Given the involvement and the order of the Delhi High Court, it would be interesting to see how the Committee on deepfakes balances the suggestions of all the stakeholders while providing its recommendations on matters related to deepfakes and if the Government ultimately adopts and takes action on the recommendations of the Committee set up by the MeitY.
