DBT Bureau
Pune, 26 July 2024
The Government recognizes the importance of establishing safeguards to ensure the safety and trustworthiness of AI. In response, after thorough public consultations with relevant stakeholders, the Central Government introduced the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“IT Rules, 2021”) on February 25, 2021, which were later amended on October 28, 2022, and April 6, 2023.
The IT Rules, 2021 cast specific legal obligations on intermediaries, including social media intermediaries and platforms, to ensure their accountability toward safe and trusted internet including their expeditious action towards the removal of prohibited misinformation, patently false information and deep fakes. In case of failure of the intermediaries to observe the legal obligations as provided in the IT Rules, 2021, they lose their safe harbor protection under section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“IT Act”) and shall be liable for consequential action or prosecution as provided under any extant law.
In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha yesterday, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Jitin Prasada, stated that the Centre is committed to ensuring safe and trusted AI, and emphasized the need for internet platforms to actively combat deepfakes.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 has also been enacted on 11th August, 2023 which casts obligations on Data Fiduciaries to safeguard digital personal data, holding them accountable, while also ensuring the rights and duties of Data Principals.
