Sara Tendulkar, daughter of cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar is the latest female to voice concerns over her deepfake photographs and inauthentic accounts on social media platforms. She took the matter after morphed photos showing her with cricket Shubman Gill had appeared on social media. She also said that several accounts impersonating her have appeared on social media platform X (Twitter).
Sara Tendulkar took to Instagram and posted, “Social media is a wonderful space for all of us to share our joys, sorrows and daily activities. However, it is disconcerting to see the misuse of technology as it takes away from the truth and authenticity of the internet. I have come across some deepfake photos of me which are far from reality,” in her story.
She hoped for action against such practices and mentioned, “A few accounts on X (formerly Twitter) have obviously been created with an intent to impersonate me and mislead people. I do not have an account on X, and I hope X looks into such accounts and suspends them.” The junior Tendulkar with almost six million followers on her official Instagram account added, “Entertainment should never come at the expense of the truth. Let’s encourage communication that’s based on trust and reality.”
A manipulated image of Sara Tendulkar with cricketer Shubman Gill was recently making the rounds on social media. She can be seen hugging India’s opening batsman in the morphed photo. The original snapshot, however, shows her along with her brother Arjun Tendulkar which was altered to replace the latter with Shubman Gill whose face is seamlessly superimposed onto her sibling’s body.
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— D-Intent Data (@dintentdata) October 27, 2023
ANALYSIS: Fake
FACT: A digitally altered image of Sara Tendulkar with cricketer Shubman Gill has been shared, claiming she is dating the cricketer. Upon research, we found the original image that features Sara Tendulkar with her brother Arjun Tendulkar, (1/2) pic.twitter.com/Mg5qXK0CAA
A fraudulent account which describes its owner as an “actor, living in dreams and parody” under the name of Sara Tendulkar with almost 75 thousand followers is currently operating on X.
A blue-ticked account with Sara Tendulkar’s name which is also written in the bio along with ‘model and parody’ with over a hundred followers and her official website link in the bio is present on X.
Other victims of deepfake videos and photos
Actress Rashmika Mandanna shared her ordeal and concerns over the misuse of technology, particularly regarding the deepfake video, a few days earlier. She highlighted that she felt really hurt to share this and had to talk about the deepfake video of her that was being spread online. The actress also stressed that the misuse of technology is extremely scary for everyone.
The viral footage displayed a girl going inside an elevator with her face edited to look like Rashmika Mandanna. Deepfake technology was used to make the modified video which in reality had Instagram model Zara Patel in it who posted the original clip on 9 October which clearly showed her face. However, the edited video’s maker placed the face of the actress over the model’s body in order to trick people into believing that she is the ‘Puhspa’ actress.
An extensively circulated photo from actress Katrina Kaif’s most recent movie Tiger 3 was tweaked to appear explicit with the use of the same technology. Unfortunately, women are the most common victims of such perverse practices.
Deepfakes pose a serious threat to India, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who also stated that they have the potential to destabilise society. He also appealed to the media to inform the public about deepfakes. He revealed, “I recently saw a video in which I was seen singing a Garba song. There are many other such videos online,” to the journalists gathered to attend the Diwali Milan program at the Bharatiya Janata Party Headquarters.
What is deepfake
The term “deepfake” describes artificial intelligence techniques, including deep learning algorithms that are employed to create and modify movies, photos or audio recordings. Whilst deepfake is not a completely new technique, it was initially made available online a few years ago. Scammers and fraudsters are using it more often to alter images and videos. These videos and photos are frequently used to steal identities and often contain an extensive amount of sexually explicit content. It is crucial to remember that altering photos and videos whether with photoshop or deepfake is illegal.
