DNA TV Show: How deepfake videos emerged as potential threat during Lok Sabha Elections 2024

Voting in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections took place on Friday in 102 seats in 21 states. The parties have now started campaigning for the second phase. This time technology is being used extensively in the election campaign, but at the same time, technology is also being misused.

Some mischievous elements are taking the help of Deepfake videos of Bollywood celebs to benefit their favourite political parties and candidates. Recently, a deepfake video of Bollywood actor Aamir Khan went viral, in which he was seen asking for votes for Congress. He had to clarify after the video went viral, saying he does not support any party. Now a similar deepfake video of Ranveer Singh is also going viral.

In this fake video, Ranveer Singh is seen supporting a political party. The video was of Singh's recent visit to Varanasi, in which he shared his experiences related to the city. But in the AI's deepfake video, Ranveer was seen attacking the central government. In this fake video, he asked voters to vote for the right party. The tagline 'Vote for Congress' has also been placed at the end of the video. After the video went viral, Ranveer tweeted and appealed to avoid deep fakes.

Deepfake is such a dangerous thing on which even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also expressed concern. PM Modi had said that deepfake can create unrest and anarchy in the society. To tackle deepfake, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has issued an advisory this month. It stated that all social media companies should follow IT rules.

Social media companies should warn people about deepfake and action should be taken against wrong and inappropriate content. Citing Rule 3(1)(b) of the advisory, it says that if someone posts or shares inappropriate content on a social media platform, then action should be taken against him under this rule.

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