A deepfake video is one where a person’s body or face is digitally altered so that they appear to be someone else. Such kind of videos are malicious in their intent and are often used to spread false information. Today, especially at a time when artificial intelligence tools are easily accessible, it is very easy and quick to create a deepfake video of a person. A victim of such a practice is actor Rashmika Mandanna.
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Rashmika Mandanna, whom we saw in ‘Pushpa’ and will be starring alongside Ranbir Kapoor in ‘Animal’, has been a recent victim of this. Somebody made an AI-generated video of her by morphing her face into the body of another woman wearing a black outfit and entering a lift. The video tries to be sexually explicit.
This is the AI-generated video of Rashmika:
🚨 There is an urgent need for a legal and regulatory framework to deal with deepfake in India.
You might have seen this viral video of actress Rashmika Mandanna on Instagram. But wait, this is a deepfake video of Zara Patel.
This thread contains the actual video. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/SidP1Xa4sT
— Abhishek (@AbhishekSay) November 5, 2023
This is the original video:
The original video is of Zara Patel, a British-Indian girl with 415K followers on Instagram. She uploaded this video on Instagram on 9 October. (2/3) pic.twitter.com/MJwx8OldJU
— Abhishek (@AbhishekSay) November 5, 2023
As the video was being shared widely on and off social media, Rashmika took to X (formerly Twitter) to share her disappointment at what was happening.
“I feel really hurt to share this and have to talk about the deepfake video of me being spread online. 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. 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,” she wrote.
Here’s a look at her post:
I feel really hurt to share this and have to talk about the deepfake video of me being spread online.
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.…
— Rashmika Mandanna (@iamRashmika) November 6, 2023
Several people online, including celebrities such as Amitabh Bachchan, Naga Chaitanya, Mrunal Thakur and singer Chinmayee Sripada stood by her in support and called out such malicious practices that try to malign a person’s image and reputation.
yes this is a strong case for legal https://t.co/wHJl7PSYPN
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) November 5, 2023
Recent deepfake targeting Actor Rashmika Mandanna exposes the alarming ease of narrative manipulation online. Urgent action is needed to safeguard Indian women from cyber threats.
I appeal to Hon’ble President @rashtrapatibhvn, Hon’ble PM @narendramodi, Minister of Electronics…
— Kavitha Kalvakuntla (@RaoKavitha) November 6, 2023
It’s truly disheartening to see how technology is being misused and the thought of what this can progress to in the future is even scarier.
Action has to be taken and some kind of law has to be enforced to protect people who have and will be a victim to this .Strength to you. https://t.co/IKIiEJtkSx— chaitanya akkineni (@chay_akkineni) November 6, 2023
Several months ago, a video of one of our most favourite actors in an AI avatar performed to Kaavaalaa from Jailer released – only it wasn’t her. It was a Deep Fake.
Nobody knows for sure whether Ms Simran had consented in advance to her likeness to be used in the Deep Fake AI…— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) November 6, 2023
#RashmikaMandanna deepfake video has shown that unregulated AI tools can create a havoc in country like India where infodemic is rampant.
India as a country is struggling in controlling menace of fake news, misinformation and disinformation.
Imagine deepfake being used by…
— Kumar Manish (@kumarmanish9) November 6, 2023
According to Mint, the Deepfake technology uses AI and machine learning to create visual and audio content to mislead viewers. It is banned from several platforms as it can be used as an effective tool to defame a person.
What times are we living in!