McAfee noted that the actual number of people affected may be much higher [File]
| Photo source: REUTERS
About 22% of Indians surveyed said they had recently come across a political deepfake that later turned out to be phony, shared a report by global security software company McAfee, based on research conducted earlier this year.
55% of them said that they are concerned about cyberbullying in connection with deepfakes, 52% said that they create phony pornographic content, 49% said that they facilitate fraud, 44% said that they impersonate public figures, 37% said that they question public trust in the media, 31% said it influences elections, and 27% said it distorts historical facts, McAfee reports.
The introduction of gigantic novel language models and text-to-image generators last year has made it not only easier but also much cheaper to create phony media and spread it online, while social media platforms struggle to identify and flag such content.
McAfee noted that the actual number of people affected by the attack could be much higher as they did not realize that they were scammed by deepfakes and did not report the same.
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While Substantial Tech platforms are preparing to implement artificial intelligence protocols by the time of the US elections, the same cannot be said for voters in India.
“There has been a huge raise in Deepfake scams that impersonate not only consumers but also prominent public figures in spheres such as business, politics, entertainment and sports. This problem is exacerbated in India, where many people unknowingly share false content on social media, mainly in WhatsApp and Telegram groups, without verifying its origin, causing a multiplier effect. Additionally, there are paid troll armies that facilitate such activities,” McAfee said in its report.
Indian stars including Rashmika Mandanna, Aamir Khan, Ranveer Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli have been the subject of deepfakes.
