Deepfake video: Delhi Police writes to Meta for URL

The Delhi Police has written to Meta to provide the URL of the account from which the ‘deepfake‘ video of actress Rashmika Mandanna was shared on social media, officials said on Saturday. The move came a day after the city police filed an FIR in connection with the incident.

Deepfake videos are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else’s likeness.

Hemant Tiwari, DCP of the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit, said the Delhi Police has also sought the information about the people who shared the fake video on social media.

“We have written to Meta to access the URL ID of the account from which the video was generated. We have also started doing technical analysis,” the Deputy Commissioner of Police said in a statement.

An FIR in the matter was registered under sections 465 (forgery) and 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C and 66E of the Information Technology Act at the IFSO unit of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell after a complaint was received from Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), after the Commission took suo-moto cognisance of the deepfake video of the Indian actress.

The official said a dedicated team of officers has been constituted to crack the case. “We are expecting the case will be cracked soon.”

Madanna’s deepfake video, which was suspected to be made with the help of Artificial Intelligence, went viral on social media last week.

The original video was stated to be of a British-Indian influencer, whose face had been edited with Mandanna’s face.

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