Government to meet with social media platforms over deepfakes

The government is gearing up to tackle a relatively new threat of 'deepfakes,' and a meeting is set for November 23 with social media bigwigs.

The government is worried about how people are using fancy technology to make fake videos, and they want social media platforms to do more to stop it. This move follows some fake videos going viral, especially ones targeting famous actors, making a lot of people upset.

On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that these fake videos, made using smart computer programs, could cause big problems and even make people unhappy. He asked the media to tell everyone about the dangers of these fake videos.

Recently even a fake video of Prime Minister Modi playing garba went viral which was also mentioned by the PM while raising the concern for the technology.

Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is serious about this issue. He warned social media platforms that they won't get special protection if they don't work hard to stop fake videos. The government already told these companies to pay attention to this, and while they said they would, the minister thinks they need to do even more.

In a talk with reporters, Vaishnaw said, "They are taking steps... but we think that many more steps will have to be taken. And we are very soon going to have a meeting of all the platforms... maybe in the next 3-4 days, we'll call them for brainstorming on that and make sure that platforms make adequate efforts for preventing it (deepfakes), and cleaning up their system."

When asked if big companies like Meta and Google will be part of this meeting, the minister gave affirmation. He also repeated that the protection these companies usually have won't apply if they don't take strong action against fake videos. The meeting aims to work together and find good ways to stop the spread of fake videos on the internet. The Minister said " The safe harbour clause, which most social media platforms have been enjoying... that does not apply if they do not take adequate steps for removing deepfakes from their platforms."

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