On 1-3-2024, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (‘MeitY’) issued advisory, in continuation to advisory dated 26-12-2023, for all Intermediaries/ Platforms under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
Key Points:
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Intermediaries have to comply and submit Action Taken-cum-Status Report within 16-3-2024 (15 days of advisory).
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Non-compliance with the provisions of Information Technology Act, 2000 (‘IT Act’) and Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (‘IT Rules’) will result in potential penal consequences.
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Provision regarding misinformation/ deepfake- if any intermediary uses a software/ other computer resource permit and facilitates creation/ generation/ modification of synthetic data that can be used as misinformation or deepfake, then such synthetic data should be labeled/ embedded with a permanent unique metadata or identifier, in a manner that such label, metadata or identifier can be used to identify the source and the creator or first originator of such misinformation/ deepfake.
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Further, the Intermediaries/ Platforms also have to ensure Compliance with the following:
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To ensure that use of Artificial Intelligence model/LLM/Generative AI, software or algorithm on or through its computer resource does not permit its users to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any unlawful content.
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To ensure that their computer resources do not permit any bias or discrimination or threaten the integrity of the electoral process, including using Artificial Intelligence model/LLM/Generative AI, software or algorithm.
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The use of under-testing / unreliable Artificial Intelligence model /LLM/Generative AI, software or algorithm and its availability to the users on Indian Internet must be done so with explicit permission of the Government of India and be deployed only after appropriately labeling the possible and inherent fallibility or unreliability of the output generated.
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The ‘consent popup’ mechanism may be used to explicitly inform the users about the possible and inherent fallibility or unreliability of the output generated.
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All users must be clearly informed including through the terms of services and user agreements of the intermediary or platforms about the consequence of dealing with the unlawful information on its platform, including disabling of access to or removal of non-compliant information, suspension or termination of access or usage rights of the user to their user account, as the case may be, and punishment under applicable law.
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Note:
Compliance that was to be followed according to 26-12-2023 advisory:
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The content not permitted under the IT Rules, in particular those listed under Rule 3(1)(b) must be clearly communicated to the users in clear and precise language including through its terms of service and user agreements and the same must be expressly informed to the user at the time of first-registration and also as regular reminders, in particular, at every instance of login and while uploading/sharing information onto the platform.
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Digital intermediaries must ensure users are informed about penal provisions, including those in the IPC and the IT Act 2000, in case of Rule 3(1)(b) violations.
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Intermediaries were obliged to ensure reasonable efforts to prevent users from hosting, displaying, uploading, modifying, publishing, transmitting, storing, updating, or sharing any information related to the 11 listed user harms or content prohibited on digital intermediaries.
