The Gujarat and Centre governments highlighted delays and non-compliance by intermediaries in responding to lawful notices, urging immediate coordination, expedited response timelines, and real-time collaboration between enforcement agencies and platforms.

The Sahyog portal, created by the Centre in October 2024, aims to facilitate swift takedown and provide access to logs and evidence for investigations by linking law enforcement and intermediaries.

The case is positioned as a pivotal moment for India’s AI governance, potentially shaping future policy, safeguards, and the balance between innovation and public interest.

The Centre highlighted IT Rules, 2026 amendments mandating clear labeling of AI-generated content, faster takedown timelines, detection tools, and removal of unlawful content within strict deadlines, sometimes hours after notice.

This development coincides with India’s IT Rules amendments to regulate AI-generated content, defining synthetically generated information and mandating clear labeling, with stricter takedown timelines for platforms.

The court noted that the key question is the strict enforcement and uniform implementation of the existing statutory regime in the public interest, based on submissions from the Union of India and the State authorities.

The division bench emphasized accountability, compliance and transparency in handling unlawful AI-generated material due to rising deepfake incidents and potential societal impact.

The matter is slated for further hearing on May 8, with advocates representing the petitioner, the State, and the Union government present at the hearing.

The Gujarat High Court is seeking responses from Meta India, Google, X, Reddit and Scribd regarding a PIL that raises concerns about the unchecked generation and circulation of AI-generated deepfake content and calls for a robust regulatory framework to curb misuse of artificial intelligence.

The petitioner, Vikas Nair, argues that deepfakes threaten public order and democratic processes, urging a dedicated regulatory framework for synthetic media.

The PIL, filed by Vikas Nair, argues that existing laws (IT Act 2000 and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita) are inadequate to regulate AI-generated deepfakes, and calls for a comprehensive regulatory framework to curb misuse and rapid evolution of AI technology.

The Ministry of Home Affairs informed the court that 524 IT intermediaries, including Meta and Google, have onboarded Sahyog, while some platforms like X have not fully integrated and have shown low responsiveness to statutory notices, with 1160 URLs of allegedly unlawful content across 1160 total intimations, and formal responses received for only a fraction of them.