India’s government has unveiled draft regulations requiring artificial intelligence and social media platforms to clearly label AI-generated content, in a sweeping effort to combat deepfakes and misinformation amid rising concerns over the technology’s misuse.
The proposed rules, released Wednesday by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, would compel companies such as OpenAI, Google, Meta, and X to include visible AI markers covering at least 10% of a video or image’s surface area, or the first 10% of an audio clip’s duration, to indicate that the material was artificially created.
India — home to nearly 1 billion internet users — has faced an explosion of AI-generated deepfakes and false information, particularly during elections, in a country already divided along ethnic and religious lines. Officials warn that manipulated videos and fake news could incite violence and erode public trust.
Under the proposal, platforms must also ask users to declare whether their uploads are AI-generated and introduce technical safeguards to verify authenticity. The ministry said the rules aim to ensure “visible labelling, metadata traceability, and transparency for all public-facing AI media.”
The government cited a growing threat from generative AI tools capable of impersonating individuals, spreading propaganda, or manipulating elections. “The potential for harm has grown significantly,” it said in a statement inviting public and industry feedback by November 6.
Legal experts noted that the new labelling rule is one of the first in the world to set a quantifiable visibility standard. Dhruv Garg, founding partner of the Indian Governance and Policy Project, said it would require AI platforms to develop automated detection and tagging systems that identify synthetic content at the moment of creation.
The issue has already reached India’s courts. Bollywood actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan recently sued to block AI-generated videos using their likenesses, while challenging YouTube’s AI training policies.
India’s fast-growing digital landscape has made it a major market for AI firms. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in February that the country is the company’s second-largest market by user numbers, which have tripled in the past year.