India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has proposed new regulations that would make it compulsory for all social media platforms to clearly label artificial intelligence (AI)-generated or “synthetic” content. 

Under the draft amendment to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, users would be required to self-declare whether their uploaded posts contain AI-generated material. 

If users fail to disclose this, platforms themselves will need to proactively detect and tag such content. The labels must occupy at least 10% of the content’s visible area and would apply to all media formats, including text, video, audio, and images, not just photorealistic deepfakes.

“Deepfakes are harming society by misusing people’s likeness and spreading misinformation,” said IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, stressing the need to help users distinguish between “synthetic” and “real” content online. 

Officials said the draft rules are intended to restore trust in digital information by ensuring that manipulated or computer-generated content is prominently tagged or embedded with unique metadata identifiers. 

The proposed amendment also defines synthetically generated information as content that is “artificially or algorithmically created, generated, modified, or altered using a computer resource in a way that it appears authentic or true.” 

This marks a policy shift from the government’s earlier position, which had maintained that existing laws against impersonation and misinformation were adequate. The latest proposal reflects growing public and parliamentary concern over the social and political impact of deepfakes and manipulated media. 

The Ministry has invited public and industry feedback on the draft amendment until November 6, 2025, with officials noting that major social platforms have acknowledged they already possess the technical tools to comply with such requirements.