The Indian government plans to come out with a framework within 10 days to combat the menace of deepfakes, union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said after meeting social media companies over the issue.

“We will start drafting regulations today itself, and within a short time we will have a new set of regulations for deepfakes. This could be in the form of amending existing framework or bringing new rules, or new law,” Vaishnaw was quoted as saying by various media reports.

The statement came after the minister met representatives from academia, industry bodies, and social media companies to discuss measures to tackle the rising number of deepfakes. 

During the discussion, government representatives and other participants, including Nasscom, reached a consensus to collaboratively address the deepfake challenge. They committed to identifying actionable items within the next 10 days, focusing on four key pillars – detecting deepfakes and misinformation, preventing their spread, strengthening reporting mechanisms, and creating awareness.

The government is considering penalising persons who upload or create deepfakes and platforms that host such content.

In a statement today, MeitY said it will immediately commence an exercise for assessing and drafting necessary regulations to curb the menace of deepfake. For this purpose, it will invite comments from the public on MyGov portal.

“A follow-up meeting with relevant stakeholders will be held again in the first week of December 2023 to finalise the 4-pillared structure. The Government of India remains committed to combat the growing threat of deepfake by leveraging technology and fostering public awareness,” it added.

In the past few weeks, a number of deepfake videos of celebrities and politicians have emerged on social media. Deepfakes can be a big problem for democracy and the government has repeatedly highlighted the need to tackle the challenge head-on. 

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has, from time to time, advised social media intermediaries to exercise due diligence and take expeditious action against deepfakes. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also flagged the challenge posed by deepfakes. During his virtual address at the G20 summit earlier this week, Modi urged world leaders to collaborate on developing global policies for regulating artificial intelligence (AI) to curb the menace of deepfakes.

Prior to that, PM Modi said that deepfakes could lead to a big crisis and stoke discontent in society. 

Earlier this month, Vaishnaw also said that social media companies have to be more aggressive in taking action on such content, adding that the platforms should make adequate efforts for preventing deepfakes and cleaning up their system.