The deepfake video involving actor Rashmika Mandanna has created a storm on social media. Now, Zara Patel, the UK-based social media influencer, whose original video was morphed to create Rashmika's deepfake has responded to the incident.
"Hi all, it has come to my attention that someone created a deepfake video using my body and a popular Bollywood actress's face. I had no involvement with the deepfake video, and I'm deeply disturbed and upset by what is happening (sic)" the model wrote on her Instagram Story on Monday night.
"I worry about the future of women and girls who now have to fear even more about putting themselves on social media. Please take a step back and fact-check what you see on the internet. Not everything on the internet is real. I'm deeply upset by what is happening," Patel added in her post. Patel has several followers owing to the bold and adult content she often posts on her social media page. She also describes herself as a date engineer and mental health advocate.
Meanwhile, several celebrities have reacted the now viral deepfake video. Actor Naga Chaitanya said it was disheartening to see how technology is being misused and the thought of what this can progress to in the future is even scarier.
"Action has to be taken and some kind of law has to be enforced to protect people who have and will be a victim to this. Strength to you," he wrote in his reply to Mandanna's X post. In her post, Chinmayi described deepfake as "the next weapon" to target and blackmail girls in India.
"Loan apps harass women borrowers with photoshopped images of their faces over porn photos and they can't deal with that. But a Deep Fake is going to be tougher for the usual untrained eye to spot. Everyone doesn't have high-res displays (sic)" the singer wrote on the microblogging site. Several months ago, a deepfake clip of actor Simran's AI avatar performing to 'Kaavaalaa' from 'Jailer' was circulating online, she added.
"Nobody knows for sure whether Ms Simran had consented in advance to her likeness to be used in the Deep Fake AI rendering of Kaavaalaa. She shared it on her social media pages as well...I truly hope there is a nationwide awareness campaign that can kickstart urgently to educate the general public about the dangers of deepfakes for girls and to report incidents instead of taking matters into their own hands," Chinmayi further said.
(With PTI inputs)
