India tightens rules on deepfakes and shortens takedown timelines

India has ordered social media platforms to increase policing of deepfakes and other AI-generated impersonations while sharply shortening the time for takedown compliance. The changes, published as amendments to the 2021 IT Rules, bring synthetic audio and visual content under a formal framework that mandates labelling, traceability and a three-hour deadline for official takedown orders, plus a two-hour window for certain urgent user complaints.

Platforms that allow users to upload audio-visual content must require disclosures about whether material is synthetically generated, deploy tools to verify those claims, and ensure deepfakes are clearly labelled and embedded with provenance data. The rules bar certain categories outright, including deceptive impersonations, non-consensual intimate imagery and material linked to serious crimes, and warn that non-compliance can jeopardise safe-harbour protections.

They also lean heavily on automated systems to identify, label and block prohibited synthetic content.

India

india, deepfakes, ai impersonation, synthetic audio, synthetic visual, takedown deadline, urgent complaints, provenance data, labelling, safe-harbour