Rashmika Mandanna Deepfake: Delhi Police Seeks Info From Meta Over Video Origins

Meta appears to have landed in the crosshairs of enforcement agencies over the viral deepfake video that allegedly featured actor Rashmika Mandanna. 

Delhi Police has directed the social media giant to provide the URL of the account from which the ‘deepfake’ video of Mandanna originated, according to a PTI report. In addition, the city Police has also sought information on users who allegedly shared the fake video on social media platforms. 

“We have written to Meta to access the URL ID of the account from which the video was generated,” an official probing the matter told PTI. 

This comes barely a day after the special cell of Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations Unit registered an FIR in the matter. The report was lodged under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act for flouting norms related to forgery and for harming one’s reputation.

As per the report, a source said that a dedicated team of sleuths has been constituted to look into the matter and that the case could be cracked soon. 

The flurry of developments comes just a day after the Delhi Commission for Women on November 10 sent a notice to local Police seeking action in connection with the deepfake video that went viral online recently. 

The deepfake video featured what looked like Rashmika Mandanna and used generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools to make the synthetic video realistic. The aftermath saw the actor publicly slamming the video while actor Amitabh Bachchan called for action against culprits for generating the fake video

This followed two separate deepfake images making rounds online that involved actor Katrina Kaif and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s daughter Sara Tendulkar. The synthetic images were met with criticism online as users called for a crackdown on those using AI for nefarious reasons. 

Close on the heels of this, Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar also chimed into debate and said that the safety of and security of netizens, especially women, was the centre’s priority. 

Afterwards, the government also issued an advisory to major social media platforms, directing them to flag and remove deepfakes and illicit content within 36 hours after being reported by users. 

While Delhi Police is already probing the matter, Maharashtra Congress has sought the establishment of a government panel that would be tasked with formulating a legal and regulatory framework to curb deepfakes.

In a post on X, the general secretary of Congress’ state unit Sachin Sawant said that a separate machinery is needed to identify deepfakes and expose them.

Curiously, the development comes just a day after it was reported that Meta was looking to mandate advertisers to declare the usage of any digitally altered image or video in their ads. The policy, which will be rolled out globally, is expected to be moderated by a mix of both human and AI fact-checkers.