Hyderabad: A deepfake of actress Rashmika Mandanna is going viral on social media, which purportedly shows her wearing a swimsuit and entering a lift. On Monday, the actress took to her social media account and responded to the video, saying that people needed to address this as a community since ‘technology is being misused.’ She also thanked her family, friends and well-wishers and wrote about how ‘the deepfake video of her being spread online was extremely scary.’
Deepfakes are digital manipulations done through Artificial Intelligence (AI) to substitute a person or element from a particular piece of media such as images, videos and audio, with another's likeness.
Recently, they have emerged as a significant contributor to misinformation and are frequently linked to the proliferation of deceptive viral content due to being extremely convincing at creating digital facial replicas of anyone living or dead.
“Something like this is honestly, extremely scary not only for me but also for each one of us who today is vulnerable to so much harm because of how technology is being misused,” she wrote.
She further said, “Today, as a woman and as an actor, I am thankful for my family, friends and well-wishers who are my protection and support system. But if this happened to me when I was in school or college, I genuinely can’t imagine how could I ever tackle this. We need to address this as a community and with urgency before more of us are affected by such identity theft.”
The original video showcased Zara Patel, a British-Indian influencer, but through the deepfake technology, her face was seamlessly transformed into that of the actor.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar also took cognisance of the matter and reminded the social media platforms of their legal obligations to fight misinformation. He tweeted, “PM @narendramodi ji’s Govt is committed to ensuring the Safety and Trust of all DigitalNagriks using Internet. (sic)”
He also wrote about the legal obligations of social media under the IT rules notified in April 2023. He said, “It is a legal obligation for platforms to ensure no misinformation is posted by any user and ensure that when reported by any user or govt, misinformation is removed in 36 hrs. (sic)”
Chandrashekhar further reminded that if platforms do not comply with this, rule 7 will apply, and platforms can be taken to court by aggrieved persons under provisions of IPC. He also showed his concern over deepfakes and wrote, “Deepfakes are the latest and even more dangerous and damaging form of misinformation and needs to be dealt with by platforms.”
Rashmika’s co-star from the movie Goodbye, Amitabh Bachchan, also took to X to share a tweet from a user advocating for the ‘immediate requirement of a legal and regulatory framework to address the issue of deepfakes in India,’ especially in light of the viral circulation of Rashmika’s fake video clip. Reacting to a tweet, he wrote, “Yes, this is a strong case for legal.”