Safe Harbour Clause is Not Applicable To Tech Firms With AI Bias, Says Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar recently responded to a claim to the Google AI bias against right-wing portals and said that users can file FIRs against tech platforms whose AI models show bias. The minister also added that issues like search bias and algorithmic bias violate the safety and trust obligations under the IT rules.
Search Bias, Algorithmic Bias and AI models wth bias – are real violations of the Safety & Trust obligations placed on Platforms under Rule 3(1)(b) of IT rules under regulatory framework in India
Those who are aggrieved by this can file FIRs against such platforms and safe… https://t.co/cMp71tXDW2
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) November 16, 2023
Rajeev Chandrasekhar was responding to posts on X, where a user named Arun Pudur tagged the minister and pointed out that Google”s AI chatbot Bard denied to summarize an article by a right-wing portal. The X user posted screenshots of a Google Bard conversation where he asked the platform to summarize an article by OpIndia. However, the AI chatbot refused it, saying it was from a “biased and unreliable source”. In another post, the X user also said that Bard”s list of biased and false media includes various social media handles, and one of them was of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “This is a very dangerous situation as AI becomes more prevalent and is used for programming law enforcement, Govt decision making and justice etc. This has to be fixed now,” wrote the user on X.
So queried to list all biased and false media, it also Included Social Media accounts and one of them is our PM of India @narendramodi
It basically calls all Conservative and Nationalist media and leaders as biased.
Really @sundarpichai ? WTH man? pic.twitter.com/WcaY5wpseQ
— Arun Pudur (@arunpudur) November 16, 2023
Responding to this, Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated that the “safe harbour” provision in the Information Technology (IT) Act will not be applicable for tech platforms if they are found promoting search bias or if their AI models are discriminatory. “Search Bias, Algorithmic Bias and AI models wth bias – are real violations of the Safety & Trust obligations placed on Platforms under Rule 3(1)(b) of IT rules under regulatory framework in India,” wrote the minister on his X handle on November 16. “Those who are aggrieved by this can file FIRs against such platforms and safe harbor/immunity under Sec79 will not apply to these cases,” added Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Google has not yet responded to this issue.
The “safe harbour” clause, outlined in Section 79 of the Information and Technology Act, 2000, gives legal immunity to social media platforms against content shared by their users. Meanwhile, there were also reports that the central government was reviewing the “safe harbour” clause. Debates are also ongoing on whether social media platforms should continue to have zero liability for what users post.
