Delhi Police Writes To Meta Seeks URL Of Accounts That Shared Deep Fake Video

The Delhi Police has written to Meta and sought the URL of the account from which the 'deep fake' video of actress Rashmika Mandanna was shared on social media.

The Delhi Police has written to Meta, the parent company of social media platform Facebook, to provide the URL of the account from which the 'deep fake' video of actress Rashmika Mandanna was shared on social media, as reported by news agency PTI. This comes a day after the city police filed an FIR pertaining to the incident.

According to a police official, the Delhi Police has also sought the details of the people who shared the fake video on social media. "We have written to Meta to access the URL ID of the account from which the video was generated," an officer privy to the investigations told PTI.

An FIR in the matter was registered under sections 465 (forgery) and 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C and 66E of the Information Technology Act at the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations Unit of the Delhi Police's Special Cell, as reported by PTI.

The officer said a dedicated team of officers has been constituted to crack the case. "We are expecting the case will be cracked soon." The Delhi Commission for Women, too had on Friday sent a notice to the city police in connection with the video, seeking action against the people involved in the act.

Last week, a deep fake video of Rashmika Madanna, which was believed to have been created with the help of artificial intelligence, went viral on social media. The original video was stated to be of a British-Indian influencer, whose face had been edited with Mandanna's face.

Meanwhile, Technology lawyer Mishi Choudhary said while there were no specific Indian laws addressing deep fakes, provisions of IT Act could be used to address the issue.

"Carefully thought of regulations and guard rails to address current threats, issues posed by AI are required but training of police force and judiciary are more important than more laws," Choudhary  told ABP Live. "We also must change our attitudes and remove shame from the equation so people feel empowered to share and complain," she further said.