New Delhi: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has directed Meta to revamp its algorithms and submit a detailed compliance roadmap to tackle the spread of deepfakes, propaganda and other manipulated or illegal content across its platforms.
The American tech major has also been to strengthen content moderation, speed up takedowns based on requests from authorised agencies and ensure compliance with India’s data-localisation requirements, ANI reported citing sources.
The government wants Meta to work more closely with Indian authorities to improve detection and removal of deepfakes, morphed images and misleading posts.
MeitY officials on Friday held a meeting with technical team members of Meta, who explained the company’s existing systems for detecting and handling harmful content online. Meta acknowledged gaps in its existing systems and outlined technical measures it is considering to address synthetic content.
“The directive came after recent talks in which Meta admitted gaps in its current systems and laid out technical steps to tackle deepfakes and synthetic content. In a meeting on Friday with MeitY officials, Meta’s technical team walked through how it currently handles harmful content online. Officials pushed for specific algorithmic changes to limit the spread of propaganda, deepfakes, and manipulated media. Both sides agreed to continue discussions, with another meeting expected next week,” the government sources informed.
The two sides are likely to hold another meeting next week.
India has been pushing for tighter rules around AI-generated and synthetic content.
MeitY recently proposed changes to Information Technology (IT) Rules whereby unlawful content will have to be removed within 3 hours instead of the existing 36 hours.
