A multitude of Bollywood celebrities and politicians, including Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif, Kajol, and Rashmika Mandanna, have become victims of this mounting deepfake crisis, which is now recognised as the most significant online danger.
Several crime cases take place daily in which deepfake technology is misused to spread fake information, create pornographic content, hateful comments, and showcase someone inappropriately for blackmail, extortion, and harassment.
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grave concern over the rising instances of AI-generated deepfake videos and photos.
He highlighted the severity of this crisis in today's world, emphasising that a significant portion of society lacks a reliable verification system, thus making them vulnerable to falling for such deceptive content.
"It's the deepfake era, that has fake images, content, data and information all around us. Deep fake technology can be used to create something that did not exist ever, physically or visibly. Or to create false electronic records with such remarkable phonies, that even a normal naked eye is not able to find out whether the video is indeed a deepfake one or not," cyber law expert and Supreme Court advocate, Pavan Duggal told Sputnik India.
Lack of Robust Legal Framework
Duggal shared that India, as well as many other countries, does not have any dedicated law on artificial intelligence or deepfake.
"The only law that we currently have is the Information Technology (IT) Act 2000 and rules and regulations made thereunder. This mother legislation applies to any offense done using computers, computer systems, computer networks, or electronic data. When I look at the IT Act and the IT Rules 2021, I find that such misuse can't be effectively covered within the ambit of existing laws," Duggal said.
Duggal suggested a way to work around the new framework and said that the Indian government can try to use the power of making the rules under Section 87 of the Information Technology Act 2000 to prohibit the misuse of deepfake technologies.
However, he emphasised that this problem needs a bigger robust framework to combat the escalating menace of deepfake scams.
"India needs to come up with a dedicated new law on artificial intelligence. And therein, we can have specific provisions about the misuse of deepfakes because this is going to be a huge problem in the coming times," Duggal said
"Already with elections coming in, and the Indian democracy seeing some massive new movements, the misuse of deep fakes in the Indian election process, for the purposes of tampering with the Indian democratic traditions is itself going to be a big challenge," he added.
He underscores the urgency to protect not only celebrities and public figures but also individuals who may become targets in the future.
Preventive Measures to Combat Deepfakes
Till that time, there was no legal framework around artificial intelligence or deepfake-related crimes, several alternate measures can be taken to prevent people from falling for it.
"The focus will have to come back on capacity building, sensitizing people on how deepfake technology works, and encouraging people not to trust what they see online until they authenticate the information at their levels," Duggal said.
"People will have to be more cautious about this newly emerging technology. They should not rely on any content till such time they independently verify the authenticity of such content," Duggal concluded.