India warns Facebook, YouTube to enforce rules 

India’s government has warned social media companies like Facebook and YouTube to remind users that local laws prohibit the spreading of obscenity, misinformation, and deepfakes.

Deputy IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar conveyed the warning in a closed-door meeting.

He said many companies had not updated their usage terms despite 2022 rules prohibiting content that is “harmful” to children, obscene, or “impersonates another person.”

It comes amid growing concerns over deepfakes – realistic yet fabricated videos created by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms trained on online footage – which a top minister this week said India is drawing up rules to address.

Chandrasekhar said the companies must raise awareness of the rules by reminding users whenever they log in that they cannot post such content or by issuing reminders.

He said otherwise, he would issue directions forcing them to do so, said the two sources, who declined to be named as the meeting was private.

The minister described it as a “non-negotiable” demand of the Indian government during the meeting, said one of the sources.

In a press statement, India’s IT ministry said all platforms had agreed to align their content guidelines with government rules.

Alphabet Inc’s Google, which owns YouTube, said it was committed to responsible AI development and has robust policies and systems to identify and remove harmful content across its products and platforms.

The Indian government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have recently raised concerns over deepfakes.

During a virtual summit of G20 nations on Wednesday, Prime Minister Modi called on global leaders to work jointly towards regulating AI and raised concerns over the negative impact of deepfakes on society.

Countries across the world are racing to draw up rules to regulate AI. India has been tightening regulations of social media companies, which count the South Asian nation as a top growth market.

Last year, the government privately criticized the companies for not removing what it described as fake news on their sites, which it said had forced it to order content takedowns.