Deepfakes Averse To Our Interests: YouTube India Head

As the Indian government cracks the whip on social media platforms, senior YouTube executives have dubbed deepfakes as being antithetical to the video-streaming giant’s interests. 

Reacting publicly to the deepfake row, YouTube India director Ishan John Chatterjee said that viewers, creators and advertisers want to steer clear of platforms that allow fake news or misinformation, PTI report said. 

He further asserted that the company is compliant with all local laws and continues to actively engage with the government on all emerging issues.

“I want to reiterate that misinformation, in general, and deepfakes in AI is actually not in our interest at all. As a platform, if you look at the different stakeholders that we serve, and let us take the three broad ones i.e. users or viewers, creators and advertisers, none of them want to be associated with a platform that allows fake news (or) misinformation,” Chatterjee said.

Chatterjee was speaking at a virtual roundtable which also saw the platform’s director and global head of responsibility, Timothy Katz, in attendance. 

YouTube’s India head also added that the streaming platform’s intentions were aligned with the union government and key stakeholders on the matter. 

Chiming in on the deepfake debate, Katz said that generative artificial intelligence (AI) has reduced entry barriers for producing content. To curb fake content on the platform, Katz said that the platform has made it mandatory for creators to label content that includes any altered or synthetic content. 

“We want to make sure that we are labelling that content for users. And then the third is that we want to make sure that people have access to privacy so that we will enable proper removal of AI-generated or other synthetic or altered content for folks to be able to make sure they’re not being manipulated,” added Katz.

The company also said that it would enable the removal of deepfakes or any other altered content on the video streaming site via its privacy request process. It is pertinent to note that YouTube took down more that 78,000 videos globally for misinformation between April and September 2023. 

Noting that YouTube has already been using AI to moderate content, at scale, for a long time, Katz said that the emerging tech would further train its models for better content moderation. 

The development comes amid the ongoing debate on deepfakes. The issue grabbed national headlines after a deepfake video supposedly featuring actor Rashmika Mandanna went viral online, prompting public outcry and criticism. These synthetic videos use AI algorithms to create realistic yet fabricated videos. 

The aftermath saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging deepfakes as a threat and called for global AI regulation to curb such content. Acting swiftly, the government put the onus on social media platforms and directed them to ensure all such content is taken down within 36 hours. 

Even Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Rajeev Chandrasekhar also directed the intermediaries to clampdown on deepfakes. While Vaishnaw, last week, said that the Centre plans to devise a framework to curb deepfakes, MoS Chandrasekhar said that authorities would assist the citizens in filing FIR against social media platforms for violating IT rules.

The government also plans to appoint a Rule Seven officer soon to oversee the establishment of a mechanism to enable users to file complaints regarding deepfakes.