Deepfake video of Mahatma Gandhi, PM Modi and CM Yogi goes viral, police registers case

New Delhi: Deepfake video of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is going viral on social media. In this, all three celebrities are shown dancing. In this case, the police in Ballia, UP has registered an FIR against unknown people. The cyber cell team is investigating the matter.

Ballia Additional Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar Jha said that on the complaint of Praveen Singh, in-charge of media cell in cyber police station, an FIR has been registered against unknown people on Tuesday under sections of the Information Technology Act. He said that the police is investigating the matter. The accused will be traced and legal action will be taken against them.

A user has posted a post in this regard on Platform X on social media. He wrote, “UP’s successful Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ji Maharaj has made many efforts for the respect, security and empowerment of the women of his state. How some cheap street reelers are using them for a few views. How the Prime Minister and Mahatma Gandhi’s videos are being edited and uploaded for cheap popularity.” Actually, in this video, all three celebrities are shown dancing on a Bhojpuri song.

Deepfake is made up of a combination of two English words. First, deep and second fake. In deep learning, it is necessary to first study new techniques, especially the generating adversarial network also known as GAN. There are two networks in GAN, in which one generates i.e. produces new things, while the other finds the difference between the two. With the help of both of these, a synthetic data is generated, which is very similar to the real, then that is deep fake.

This technique was developed for the first time in the year 2014 by Ian Goodfellow and his team. Gradually, new things were being added to this technique. Changes kept being made. In 1997, Christoph Bregler, Michel Covell and Malcolm Slaney manipulated the visuals in a video with the help of this technique and changed the words being spoken by the anchor. This was done as an experiment. This technique was used extensively in Hollywood films.

The IT Act 2000 provides protection to any person regarding his privacy. In such a situation, if someone breaks any law by making a deepfake video or picture without someone’s consent, then a complaint can be made against him. Under section 66D of this law, if someone is found guilty, he can be sentenced to up to 3 years and fined up to Rs 1 lakh. The responsibility of social media is also fixed in the IT Act. It is important to protect one’s privacy in this.

In such a situation, if any platform gets information about any such deepfake material, then it is the responsibility of that social media platform to remove it within 24 hours of receiving the complaint. If someone is insulted through deepfake, a defamation case can be filed against him under section 499 and 500 of IPC. If a deepfake is created by stealing or hacking data, then the victim can complain under the IT Act.