MeitY Moots Stricter Disclosure Norms for AI-Generated Content

📌 Summary:

• Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has proposed amendments to IT Rules 2021 requiring mandatory disclosure of AI-generated content on digital platforms
• Proposed norm: platforms must label AI-generated images, videos, audio, and text with visible watermarks or metadata tags
• The move follows global concerns about deepfakes, misinformation, and synthetic media influencing elections and public discourse
• Scope: applies to significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs) — platforms with 5 million+ registered users in India
• MeitY also proposes tweaks to grievance redressal mechanisms: faster turnaround times and escalation to Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC)
• Context: India's general elections in 2024 saw widespread use of AI-generated political content; the new norms aim to prevent recurrence
• International precedent: EU's AI Act (2024) and China's deepfake regulations (2022) both require AI content labelling
• Challenges: technical enforcement (detecting all AI-generated content is imperfect), defining thresholds, cross-border platform compliance
• Industry concern: compliance costs for smaller platforms; risk of over-censorship if disclosure rules are loosely defined