Actress Rashmika Mandanna’s recent fake video, which was made using deepfake technology, made headlines across the country. Delhiities were also baffled by the incident and expressed fear about uploading their own pictures and videos on social media platforms.
A young professional told Tech Today: “Since I am a woman, and I am there on the social media, and I also put my pictures and videos. I think it's very concerning that something like this is happening. It is a violation to your privacy. I think it's very dangerous.”
For the unversed, deepfake technology allows users to make a fake video of anyone. They can add, delete, or change the words coming right out of somebody’s mouth. This can create misinformation and fake news and make it difficult to spot if it is real or not. This can even be used to blackmail people.
They also underlined the role of government and strongly stated that the government and social media platforms should not let such culprits get away so that it does not happen to anyone else. People expressed their concern that sometimes they don’t post their pictures and videos online just because they fear that it can be misused.
A social media user emphasised on making people aware of this kind of technology. She added that now she will have to think before posting anything on social media. A PhD student told us: “I am enjoying my right to privacy and I have the freedom to share whatever thoughts and pictures I want to share on my social media account. I am usually not very active there, but after such incident I'll be pretty cautious here.” She further added, “If these other technologies that are booming, then social media platforms as well as government has a big role to play in such incidents as people who are misusing such technology need to be punished.”
How to spot a deepfake?
While since the technology has become more refined over time, it is not easy to differentiate about what is real and what is not, but there are a few things that you can look out for. To spot a deepfake, you need to look out for inconsistencies like changes in colour of the face or voice of the person. Any slight mismatch in audio or lip-sync could indicate an anomaly in the video. In addition to this, there are several online deepfake detection tools that you can use for this purpose.
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