The government has asked social media firms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube and Twitter to take all ‘reasonable and practicable measures’ to remove or disable access to ‘deep fake imagery’ as per the IT Rules, 2021.

According to a report by ET, these platforms have to do so within 24 hours of getting a complaint from an individual, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in an advisory on Tuesday.

As per Rule 3(2)(b) of the IT Rules, this content could be impersonation in electronic form, including artificially morphed images of an individual, the letter reviewed by ET said.

“This is an advisory. We have been warned of deep fakes by our agencies including some in the MHA, so we have asked the companies to look into it,” MeitY sources told ET.

They added that the ministry expects a prompt response from the companies and will also invite them to discuss different ways in which deep fakes can be restricted.

In the email, addressed to the chief compliance officers of these platforms, MeitY highlighted that there were reports regarding the potential use of artificial intelligence-generated deep fakes that were manipulating people by generating doctored content.

“…significant social media intermediaries are advised to ensure that their rules and regulations and the user agreement contain appropriate provisions for the users not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that impersonates another person and that the users are duly informed of the same,” according to the email.