The Gujarat High Court has issued notices to technology firms Meta India, Google, X, Reddit and Scribd over a PIL seeking formulation of a robust regulatory mechanism to curb the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) in generating and circulating deepfake videos and photographs.
Issuing notices to them returnable on May 8, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice DN Ray also directed the respondent intermediaries to ensure they are brought onboard the Sahyog portal for better coordination and time-bound action related to takedown of unlawful contents in strict compliance of the provisions of the rules of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
“Effective and meaningful responses/action of the respondent intermediaries will be key to the due diligence obligations enforced upon them under the statutory framework,” the court noted in an order passed recently and made available this week.
In their affidavits, the central and Gujarat governments informed the court about frequent delays, repeated procedural obligations and non-compliance by certain tech platforms to lawful notices issued to them.
In its affidavit in response to the notice issued during previous hearing, the Centre informed the court that in October 2024 it created the Sahyog portal to facilitate immediate, coordinated and time-bound action against unlawful contents by bringing all authorised law enforcement agencies and intermediaries on a single platform.
This is meant for swift takedown of unlawful synthetically generated information and access to subscriber information, logs and judicial evidence for identification of offending users, it said.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed the court that while certain intermediaries, such as Meta and Google, have significantly improved speed, efficiency and traceability of compliance actions, others have not yet been onboarded or fully integrated with the Sahyog portal.
