‘Dangerous, damaging': Govt on ‘deepfake’ video of actor Rashmika Mandanna
- Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar emphasizes the need for platforms to address the issue of 'deepfake' videos, calling them a dangerous and damaging form of misinformation.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has reacted to the ‘deepfake’ video of actor Rashmika Mandanna going viral on social media. The Union Minister said that these dangerous and damaging form of misinformation needs to be dealt with by platforms.
Taking to X, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT wrote, “PM Narendra Modi ji's Govt is committed to ensuring Safety and Trust of all DigitalNagriks using Internet."
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Stating the IT rules notified in April, 2023, the Minister, "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. If platforms do not comply with this, rule 7 will apply and platforms can be taken to court by aggrieved person under provisions of IPC. Deepfakes are latest and even more dangerous and damaging form of misinformation and needs to be dealt with by platforms.”
The Union Minister tweet came in reply to a journalist named Abhishek Kumar who had shared the video of the actress and called for "an urgent need for a legal and regulatory framework to deal with deepfake incidents in the country. Kumar also shared the original video and said that, the video is of Zara Patel and was uploaded on 9 October. Patel is a British-Indian girl with 415K followers on Instagram.
Superstar Amitabh Bachchan who played the role of Mandanna's father in 'Good Bye' also came in support of the actor and called for a legal action. Replying to the Abhishek's post, the actor wrote, “yes this is a strong case for legal”
What are Deepfakes?
'DeepFake' are videos made with the help of Artificial Intelligence that appear genuine, however, depict events or speech that never happened. In a Deepfake video, the body or face the person is digitally manipulated to make them appear like someone else.
Meanwhile, the actor will be seen in ‘Animal’ opposite Ranbir Kapoor. Helmed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga 'Animal' also stars Anil Kapoor and Bobby Deol in the lead roles and is all set to hit the theatres on December 1.