New Delhi: In a bid to ensure safe and trusted artificial intelligence (AI), the Central government has once again made it clear to the social media intermediaries and platforms to act on prohibited misinformation, patently false information and deepfakes under the IT Rules, 2021.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Jitin Prasada, said that the government is cognisant of the need to create guardrails to ensure that AI is safe and trusted.

Accordingly, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021) were subsequently amended.

The IT Rules, 2021 cast specific legal obligations on intermediaries, including social media intermediaries and platforms, to ensure their accountability towards a safe and trusted Internet.

The Minister said in a reply to a question in Lok Sabha that in case of failure of the intermediaries to observe the legal obligations as provided in the IT Rules, 2021, they lose their safe harbour protection under section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) and “shall be liable for consequential action or prosecution as provided under any extant law”.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 has also been enacted last year, which casts obligations on data fiduciaries to safeguard digital personal data, holding them accountable, while also ensuring the rights and duties of data principals.

From hefty penalties ranging from a minimum of Rs 50 crore to a maximum of Rs 250 crore on social media platforms for violating rules to enabling digital markets to grow more responsibly while safeguarding citizens' data, the Data Protection Bill envisages the creation of a Data Protection Board of India.

The Bill will apply to the processing of digital personal data within India where such data is collected online, or collected offline and is digitised.