According to a PIB launch, the advisory said, “The content not permitted under the IT Rules, in particular those listed under Rule 3(1)(b) must be clearly communicated to the users in clear and precise language including through its terms of service and user agreements and the same must be expressly informed to the user at the time of first-registration and also as regular reminders, in particular, at every instance of login and while uploading/sharing information onto the platform.”

It additionally emphasised that social media platforms should guarantee customers are knowledgeable about penal provisions, together with these within the IPC and the IT Act 2000, in case of Rule 3(1)(b) violations.

“The users must be made aware of the various penal provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860, the IT Act, 2000 and such other laws that may be attracted in case of violation of Rule 3(1)(b). In addition, the terms of service and user agreements must clearly highlight that intermediaries/platforms are under obligation to report legal violations to the law enforcement agencies under the relevant Indian laws applicable to the context,” the advisory additional added.

Rule 3(1)(b) throughout the due diligence part of the IT guidelines mandates intermediaries to speak their guidelines, laws, privateness coverage, and consumer settlement within the consumer’s most popular language. They are additionally obliged to make sure affordable efforts to stop customers from internet hosting, displaying, importing, modifying, publishing, transmitting, storing, updating, or sharing any info associated to the 11 listed consumer harms or content material prohibited on digital intermediaries. This rule goals to make sure platforms establish and promptly take away misinformation, false or deceptive content material, and materials impersonating others, together with deepfakes.

Speaking on the advisory, IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “Misinformation represents a deep threat to the safety and trust of users on the Internet. Deepfake which is misinformation powered by AI, further amplifies the threat to safety and trust of our Digital Nagriks. On 17th November, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi alerted the country to the dangers of deepfakes and post that, the Ministry has had two Digital India Dialogues with all the stakeholders of the Indian Internet to alert them about the provisions of the IT Rules notified in October 2022, and amended in April 2023 that lays out 11 specific prohibited types of content on all social media intermediaries & platforms.”

Last month, the IT Ministry had pulled up the platforms for not having aligned their phrases of service with India’s web legal guidelines and instructed them to instantly begin informing their customers what can and can’t be posted on their platforms.

The Union authorities additionally nominated an officer who will assist customers file FIRs towards social media companies in circumstances associated to deepfakes.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sought the media’s help in educating individuals relating to the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence and deepfake know-how whereas calling its functionality of “fanning the flame of disaffection very rapidly” in a rustic as numerous and enormous as India “worrying”.

Several deepfake movies focusing on main actors have gone viral on social media platforms within the current previous, elevating considerations over its misuse.