The Delhi Police, on Saturday, arrested the main accused behind the deepfake video of actor Rashmika Mandanna that went viral a few months ago, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Hemant Tiwari, IFSO Unit said, according to ANI.
The police registered a case under IPC sections 465 (punishment for forgery) and 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), and sections 66C (identity theft) and 66E (privacy violation) of the Information Technology Act, Livemint reported.
Mandanna’s face was digitally manipulated (allegedly using AI) and added to a video of a British influencer Zara Patel. After the video went viral, Mandanna had issued a statement that read, “I feel really hurt to share this and have to talk about the deepfake video of me being spread online."
She added, “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 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.”
In an exclusive conversation with The Quint, Patel had said, “I was really scared. I reported the video to Instagram, but there is no section where you can report a "deepfake"."
"I tried to report it as fraud, but technically this is not a fraud. I don’t know how Instagram is going to deal with this, because there are other bigger influencers facing similar problems, where their bodies are being digitally manipulated on someone else's videos. I have seen a lot of women influencers based in the US, who have posted about deepfake videos about them. I don't know how to go about it, so I have sought counsel from other people who have gone through this," she added.
Other than Rashmika Mandanna, celebrities like Kajol, Alia Bhatt, and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar have also had to deal with deepfake videos.
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