Move to label all AI on social media faces pushback

A grand plan to label all AI-generated content on social media has run into resistance, with Big Tech, policy thinktanks and industry body Nasscom calling the government's proposals expensive and impractical, suggesting that the new regulations instead focus on preventing harm from AI.

- Shouvik Das

Social media platforms said this will require enormous scrutiny, escalating operating costs. In their submissions to the ministry of electronics and IT (Meity), they called the proposals too broad-based, and requested adding definitions of disinformation and deepfakes.

The rules will “make it impossible for content to be posted, shared and consumed the way they are on social media in India today,” said an executive close to Meta Platforms, which runs Facebook and Instagram. "Tagging every piece of content with watermarks and metadata, which too are not fail-proof processes and can be meddled with, is a massive commercial exercise. Through these rules, India will not only risk becoming the most expensive nation to run social media platforms on—it will also be near-impossible to make social media platforms work the way they do currently,” the executive said on the condition of anonymity.