Govt Notice to X over vulgar AI content

The Centre on Friday issued a stern notice to X to immediately remove all vulgar and unlawful content, especially generated by its AI app Grok or face action under the law.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MietY) issued a notice to the Chief Compliance Officer for India operations of X for failure to observe statutory due diligence obligations under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

"...X is hereby directed to...Remove or disable access, without delay, to all content already generated or disseminated in violation of applicable laws, in strict compliance with the timelines prescribed under the IT Rules, 2021, without vitiating the evidence in any manner," the order dated January 2 said.

"Social media should be responsible for the content they publish. Intervention is required," Vaishnaw said. Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi has also written to the minister seeking urgent intervention on increasing incidents of AI apps being misused to create vulgar photos of women and post them on social media. "The standing committee has recommended that there is a need to come up with a tough law to make social media accountable for content they publish," Vaishnaw said.

 The ministry has sought an action taken report towards immediate compliance for the prevention of hosting, generation, publication, transmission, sharing or uploading of obscene, nude, indecent and sexually explicit content through the misuse of AI-based services like 'Grok'.

"It is reiterated that non-compliance with the...Requirements shall be viewed seriously and may result in strict legal consequences against your platform, its responsible officers and the users on the platform who violate the law, without any further notice, under the IT Act, the IT Rules, the BNSS, the BNS and other applicable laws," the order said.

Centre had earlier this week warned online platforms -- mainly social media firms -- of legal consequences if they fail to act on obscene, vulgar, pornographic, paedophilic and other forms of unlawful content.

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said social media firms should take responsibility for content they publish and a Parliamentary Standing Committee has already recommended a tough law to fix accountability of platforms.          

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has recommended that the government make social media and intermediary platforms more accountable with respect to peddling fake content and news.

 The committee has endorsed the view of stakeholders, such as enforcing transparency in algorithms, introducing stricter fines, and penalties for repeat offenders, establishing an independent regulatory body, and using technological tools like AI to curb the spread of misinformation, etc.

On December 29, Meity asked social media firms to immediately review their compliance framework and act against obscene and unlawful content on their platform, failing which they may face prosecution under the law of the land. The advisory followed Meity noticing that social media platforms have not been strictly acting on obscene, vulgar, inappropriate, and unlawful content.