Rashmika Mandanna Deepfake Row: Centre tightens social media rules, warns of 3-year jail term, Rs 1 lakh fine

A day after a deepfake video of Rashmika Mandanna went viral on social media, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) has issued an advisory to social media platforms, highlighting the legal regulations governing deepfakes and the potential consequences associated with their creation and dissemination.

‘3-year-jail term, Rs 1 lakh fine’

Citing Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the government advisory stated, “Whoever, by means of any communication device or computer resource cheats by personating, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to one lakh rupees.” For the unversed, Section 66D relates to ‘punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource’. 

Yesterday,  Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrashekhar had assured that the Narendra Modi government is committed to ensuring safety and trust for Indians. “The Narendra Modi-led government is committed to ensuring the Safety and Trust of all DigitalNagriks using the Internet. Under the IT rules notified in April, 2023 – it is a legal obligation for platforms to ensure no misinformation is posted by any user; and ensure that when reported by any user or govt, misinformation is removed in 36 hours; If platforms do not comply with this, rule 7 will apply and platforms can be taken to court by aggrieved person under provisions of IPC; Deep fakes are latest and even more dangerous and damaging form of misinformation and needs to be dealt with by platforms”, tweeted the IT minister. 

Rashmika Mandanna Deepfake video

A video featuring Rashmika Mandanna was doing rounds on social media yesterday. In the video, the Pushpa actor was seen entering an elevator. Abhishek Kumar, a journalist and a researcher, posted the video on X requesting a legal and regulatory framework to tackle the issue of rising deepfakes in India. For the unversed, the video initially showed Zara Patel, a British-Indian influencer, but then her face was replaced with the face of the actor using deepfake technology.  

How Rashmika reacted to the Deepfake video? 

Reacting to the video, Rashmika said, “I feel hurt to share this and have to talk about the deepfake video of me being spread online. 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 could I ever tackle this. We need to address this as a community and with urgency before more of us are affected by such identity theft.”

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