NEW DELHI, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Indian police said Saturday they have arrested a man involved in the creation of a sensational deepfake video of Bollywood actress Rashmika Mandanna.
According to police, the accused was arrested from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh and brought to the national capital New Delhi.
"We have arrested 24-year-old Eemani Naveen from Andhra Pradesh's Guntur. His laptop and mobile phone have been recovered and his deleted data is also being recovered," Hemant Tiwari, a senior officer of Delhi Police's Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit, told media. "The accused used to run a fan page of a famous film actress (Rashmika Mandanna) and also created two more fan pages of another two noted celebrities."
According to Tiwari, Naveen created the deepfake video to increase the number of followers on the social media page and earn from its monetization.
The deepfake video of Mandanna triggered an outrage and sparked a debate on deepfakes around the country.
Deepfake is a video of a person made using AI tools to digitally alter faces and bodies so they appear to be someone else. It is typically done for malicious purposes or to spread false information.
Amid growing concerns about deepfakes and misinformation powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Indian government issued an advisory to all platforms to comply with information technology rules. ■