Rashmika Mandanna deepfake case: Delhi Police track down 4 suspects, hunt for key conspirator on

The Delhi Police on Wednesday reportedly tracked down four suspects who were involved in uploading Bollywood actress Rashmika Mandanna's deepfake video online. However, the hunt for the creators of the video and the main conspirator behind it is still on, reported ANI citing the police.

This comes over a month after a modified video of the actor went viral on social media sparking off discussions of digital safety. The video showed a woman, identified as Zara Patel, dressed in a black workout onesie inside an elevator. Her face was edited using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to resemble Mandanna. Immediately after, officials began investigating the case by identifying all the IP addresses from where the video was uploaded. The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) of Delhi Police on November 11 registered an FIR against unidentified people in connection with the case after the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) sent a notice to the city police.

Rashmika Mandanna on her deep fake video

Rashmika strongly reacted to the deepfake video saying she feels “really hurt to share and talk about the video”. “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,” she said.

Centre on tackling deepfake videos

Ever since the actor's fake video went viral, the government has been very vocal about tackling such cases. On November 24, the IT ministry sent two letters to all social media platforms reminding them of their responsibility to weed out misinformation and deepfakes as mandated by Indian law. IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw termed the deepfakes as a “new threat to democracy”, adding that the government is working on coming up with new regulations to tackle such situations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised concerns over the misuse of AI for creating ‘deepfakes’, saying that the media can play a role in raising awareness about this crisis. Addressing a gathering of media persons during a ‘Diwali Milan’ programme at the BJP office in Delhi, Modi said: “A new crisis is emerging due to deepfakes produced through artificial intelligence. There is a very big section of society that does not have a parallel verification system… This (deepfake) will take us to grave danger and has the potential to spread the fire of dissatisfaction.”

The PM cited a video he saw recently of him performing garba even though he has not done so since schooldays. “I recently saw a video in which I was playing garba... it was very well done, but I have never done garba since school,” he said.

(With inputs from ANI)