MeitY Proposes Mandatory Labelling, Metadata, and User Declaration for Deepfakes and AI-Generated Content
SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions | SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has proposed comprehensive amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 to regulate synthetically generated information, or “deepfakes,” aiming to ensure an Open, Safe, Trusted, and Accountable Internet. The amendments strengthen the due diligence obligations of all intermediaries, particularly Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMIs).
Key Mandates for Transparency and Due Diligence:
Mandatory Labeling (for Creation Tools): Intermediaries offering computer resources that enable the creation or modification of synthetic content must ensure that every such piece of information is prominently labelled or embedded with a permanent unique metadata or identifier.
Visibility Standard: This label must be visibly displayed or made audible in a prominent manner, covering at least 10% of the surface area of the visual display or the initial 10% of audio duration.
Anti-Removal Clause: Intermediaries are prohibited from enabling the modification, suppression, or removal of this mandatory label or metadata.
Enhanced Obligations for SSMIs (for Hosting Platforms): SSMIs (e.g., major social media platforms) must take two key steps prior to publishing content:
They must require users to declare whether the uploaded information is synthetically generated.
They must deploy reasonable and appropriate technical measures (including automated tools) to verify the accuracy of the user’s declaration.
Liability Protection: The amendments protect intermediaries who remove or disable access to harmful synthetic content based on reasonable efforts or user grievances, ensuring such good-faith actions do not affect their statutory safe harbor exemption under Section 79(2) of the IT Act.
What is Synthetically Generated Information? “Synthetically generated information” is defined as information that is artificially or algorithmically created, generated, modified, or altered using a computer resource, in a manner that such information reasonably appears to be authentic or true. This definition explicitly includes “deepfakes, misinformation, and other unlawful content capable of misleading users”.
Policy Relevance
This comprehensive overhaul is India’s direct legal response to recent incidents of deepfakes being weaponized to spread misinformation, damage reputations, and potentially influence elections. By imposing strict mandatory labelling and verification mandates, the policy achieves several strategic objectives for India:
Sovereign Accountability: It establishes clear accountability for SSMIs by shifting the legal and technical burden onto them to verify content and ensures that platforms facilitating AI creation must enable immediate traceability.
Information Integrity: It empowers Indian users to distinguish between authentic and synthetic information, which is paramount for safeguarding the integrity of the country’s democratic processes and protecting the public from fraud and impersonation.
Legal Clarity: The clarificatory inclusion ensures that existing provisions against unlawful acts in the IT Rules are explicitly extended to cover synthetically generated information, removing legal ambiguity.
Follow the full news here: The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021