'Exposes Ease Of Narrative Manipulation': Telangana MLA On Rashmika Mandanna's Deepfake Clip

A video, featuring an AI deepfake of South actress Rashmika Mandanna, was doing the rounds on social media in the last week or so. K. Kavitha, the Nizamabad MLA, has now shared her opinion on the issue, underlining the grave consequences this practice would lead to if not addressed properly.

She posted on X, “Recent deepfake targeting Actor Rashmika Mandanna exposes the alarming ease of narrative manipulation online. Urgent action is needed to safeguard Indian women from cyber threats. I appeal to Hon’ble President @rashtrapatibhvn, Hon’ble PM @narendramodi, Minister of Electronics @AshwiniVaishnaw & @Rajeev_GoI to form a dedicated Parliamentary Committee for comprehensive measures. The time for concrete action is now, rhetorics can wait.”

Days after the video surfaced, Rashmika addressed the issue and highlighted how it was a serious issue across the globe.

“I feel hurt to share this and have to talk about the deepfake video of me being spread online,” read Mandanna’s tweet.

She further commented, “Something like this is honestly, extremely scary not only for me but also for each one of us who today is vulnerable to so much harm because of how technology is being misused.

“Today, as a woman and as an actor, I am thankful for my family, friends and well-wishers who are my protection and support system. But if this happened to me when I was in school or college, I genuinely can’t imagine how I could ever tackle this.

“We need to address this as a community and with urgency before more of us are affected by such identity theft.”

The police have said that the emergence of deepfake applications has complicated the distinction between authentic and manipulated content. This has confused the lead-up to the elections.

Hyderabad’s Cybercrime ACP, Shiva Maruti, emphasised, “The proliferation of AI has brought forth a new set of challenges. AI-generated videos and deepfake apps pose a potential threat to the electoral process’s integrity. We are taking this matter seriously and collaborating with cybersecurity experts to detect and combat such counterfeit content.”