Ashwini Vaishnaw. Image Courtesy: Wikipedia
Weeks after India woke up to the menace of 'deepfake' when a top Indian actress’ found her face superimposed on another girl's and its video circulating on social media, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw spoke to major industry leaders, holding a meeting with industry body NASSCOM to find ways to tackle the dangers of the technology.
In a meeting Thursday, Vaishnaw spoke with social media companies and experts to find ways to stop fake videos. He said they'll create new rules in the next ten days to target the deepfake problem.
Vaishnaw in the meeting said that they'll focus on four main things: finding these fake videos, stopping them from spreading, making it easier to report them, and educating people more about this technology.
"The companies share our concerns and they understood that it’s [deepfakes] are not free speech. They understood that it’s something that’s very harmful to the society," the Information and Technology Minister said, according to Reuters. "They understood the need for much heavier regulation on this, so we agree that we will start drafting the regulation today itself."
The meeting came in the wake of a deepfake video of actor Rashmika Mandanna circulating on social media. The video showed the actor's face superimposed on an Instagram influencer's in an uncanny seamlessness that made many initially to fall for it.
Vaishnaw said that the government might make new laws or change the existing ones to deal with this.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that understanding how these fake videos are made is crucial because they can be used to spread lies on purpose.
There have been many fake videos of famous people like Shah Rukh Khan, Virat Kohli, and Akshay Kumar on social media. Some were used in ads for games and betting, which can confuse people.
"The deepfakes can spread significantly more rapidly without any checks and they are getting virals within minutes of their uploading. That’s why we need to take some very urgent steps to strengthen trust in the society and to protect our democracy," said Vaishnaw at a press conference.
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