New Delhi, Dec. 21 -- Not long ago, manipulated videos of Shah Rukh Khan were circulating online, portraying him as endorsing fraudulent investment and betting schemes. Abroad, a video of Ukraine's leader asked his country's troops to surrender before being exposed as a fake. These are not aberrations. They reveal a world where synthetic clips are cheap, fast and eerily convincing.

A 2024 McAfee Labs survey found that 75% of Indian respondents had encountered some form of a deepfake in the past year and 38% had been targeted by a deepfake-enabled scam.

Understandably, policymakers want stronger safeguards. The government's proposed amendments to the Intermediary Guidelines attempt to address these dangers by creating a category of "synt...