The central government on Thursday has maintained its stance with regards to the mandate for internet platforms to take down unlawful content within three hours of receiving a government order, sources told NDTV Profit.
The Centre held a meeting with prominent firms who are commonly classified as 'Big Tech' in order to discuss rules that govern AI and deepfake content. The notable stakeholders in attendance included Internet and Mobile Association of India, Meta, Google, OpenAI.
Rob Sherman, Meta's vice president of policy and deput chief privacy officer had earlier called the three-hour window required to take the content down as "challenging operationally" and stated that Meta could have made the Centre aware of these challenges if it had consulted with them before issuing the mandate.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) acknolwledged that the three-hour window was short but signalled no change on the mandate.
ALSO READ: India's New AI Rules: MeitY Mandates Deepfake Labels But Scraps 10% Labelling Threshold
The MeitY had recently reduced the time span regarding the deadline for intermediaries to comply with takedown directions under amendments to Section 79 of the IT Act. The initial time span was 36 hours but was shortened to three hours citing the potential for virality when it comes to deepfake and misleading content.
"The motivation around virality is understandable — harmful content can spread very quickly. But these decisions also require careful assessment, Sherman had said regarding this.The government told internet platforms that compliance with these IT amendments are to be done on priority and are non-negotiable.
The Centre, in the meeting held today, said that it cannot shield firms unable to comply, according to sources. The government also flagged prioritisation of harmful synthetic content as a key challenge for internet platforms rather than labelling content based on whether or not it is AI-generated, the persons privy to the development added.
ALSO READ: 'Really Challenging': Meta Flags Operational Constraints In MeitY's Three-Hour Takedown Rule
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
