Journalist Rajat Sharma files PIL in Delhi High Court to block apps and platforms on deepfakes

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Central government on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by seeking directions to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) to identify and block access to platforms and mobile applications enabling creation of deepfakes [Rajat Sharma v Union of India]..The plea filed by veteran journalist and Chairman and Editor-in-chief of Hindi news channel India TV was heard by a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora which ordered the government to file its reply within four weeks.The Court said that the matter will be heard next on July 19..During the hearing of the case, the Bench remarked that the Central government must consider the issue and act on it, which it has failed to do till now.Acting Chief Justice Manmohan further remarked that even political parties are now complaining about the misuse of such deepfakes during elections.“This is a major problem. We have been telling you [Central government] for months. Government will have to consider this… Are you willing to act? Are you going to act? Political parties are complaining about this as well. You are not taking any action,” the Bench remarked..In the PIL, Sharma said that he became aware of the dangers of deepfakes when he came to know about a fake video of his circulating on social media using his face and voice recommending diabetes and weight loss treatment.He said that he attempted to have the fake videos taken down but found there was no dedicated mechanism to identify and take down such videos and even though he filed a complaint with the Cyber Cell of Noida Police, no perpetrator has been apprehended..Apart from blocking of platforms enabling creation of deepfakes, Sharma has prayed that the Central government must appoint a dedicated nodal officer to receive complaints regarding deepfakes and to act upon a complaint within 12 hours and within six hours in the case of a complaint received regarding content featuring a public figure.Sharma has also sought a directive to the Central government to ensure that apps and platforms enabling creation of deepfakes disclose that the content has been generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) either by a watermark or any other effective methodology.A direction has also been sought to the social media companies to take down the deepfakes if they receive a complaint from the person concerned.The PIL further prays that guidelines be issued to ensure that any access to AI and deepfake is carried out strictly in accordance with fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution till the time rules/guidelines are framed by the government..It was contended that the misuse of deepfake and AI technologies poses serious threat to the integrity of public discourse and democratic processes and has the potential to harm individuals’ reputation, privacy and security.The senior journalist said that such misuse also has the potential to erode people’s trust in media and public institutions and violates intellectual property rights as well..It was contended that at present there is no dedicated mechanism in India to deal with deepfakes and the power vested in the government under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act (IT Act) has not been exercised to deal with applications permitting creation of deepfakes.“India’s data protection legislation, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, does not protect publicly available data. According to Section 3(c)(ii) of the Act, it does not apply to personal data that users have intentionally made publicly available. For instance, if a blogger shares personal information on social media, this data processing falls outside the data protection law's jurisdiction,” the plea said.