Ranveer Singh Files FIR After His Deepfake Video Goes Viral

SUMMARY

Earlier last week, a video of actor Ranveer Singh endorsing political party Congress started making rounds on the internet

Shortly after, the video was flagged as being digitally altered. The footage in the clip of the actor was based on an interview he gave during a recent visit to Varanasi for a fashion show.

Singh has filed an FIR against the social media account which had posted the deepfake video with Cyber Crime Cell of Mumbai Police

Actor Ranveer Singh has lodged an FIR against an AI-generated deepfake video doing the rounds on social media in which he is purportedly heard voicing his political views.

In the video, Singh, clad in a white kurta, was seen criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and insisting viewers to think about “justice” before casting their votes in the upcoming elections.

“Vote for justice, vote for Congress”, the video’s epilogue said.

The viral video of the actor was from his recent visit to Varanasi. The audio in the clip was AI-enabled.

In response to the deepfake video going viral, Singh urged people to stay vigilant of deepfakes in a post on X on April 19.

In a statement, his spokesperson said, “Yes, we have filed the police complaint and FIR has been lodged against the handle that was promoting the AI-generated deepfake video of Ranveer Singh.”

With this, the actor joins the ranks of celebrities like Rashmika Mandana, Sachin Tendulkar and Aamir Khan, among others, who have also fallen prey to deepfakes.

With the growing malice of the tech, the government as well as the industry are actively working on introducing better guardrails to keep this in check.

Concerned with the rise in the number of such cases, PM Modi called for global regulation of AI to address the issue.

Further, in March, tech major Google partnered with fact-checkers and news publishers to curb the spread of deepfakes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

In December, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the government will “keep an eye” on the remedial measures taken by the platforms on the advisories related to deepfakes.