Ever since AI has taken free hold of the internet, the world has transformed into a bizarre and disturbing string of Deepfake videos that suddenly surface on the net and leave the victim feeling deeply violated and harassed.
Ducky bhai, the famous Pakistani YouTuber who has a sizeable following on all social media platforms, recently reported a deepfake video using his wife Aroob Jatoi. The YouTuber appeared online along with his wife Aroob to inform his followers that the video circulating was a deepfake, that he aims to get to the person who edited it and uploaded it on the internet, as well as distributed it through online WhatsApp channels, and he also asked help from the online community by announcing a reward of Rs. 1000, 000 for whoever leads him to the alleged criminal.
The informer’s identity will not be revealed, assured Ducky and he does not plan to take the law in his own hands, but will hand over the culprit to the FIA.
Ducky Bhai also proceeded to explain how one can tell a deepfake video from an authentic one. His wife Aroob, stated that her sole purpose was to protect other women from being targeted in this way and requested viewers to comment “fake video” under the circulating deepfake, were they to encounter the same on their feeds.
Deepfake videos of popular celebrities have been edited and put up on the net in recent weeks and months and can also be used by the perpetrators to exact any sort of revenge or disagreement between two parties. Internet supervising and policing tools have yet to find an effective way to tackle this problem, which has caused limitless mental and emotional torture to those who have been targeted.
How We Can All Help Counter The Problem
It is very easy to say “don’t watch, don’t share and don’t add to the problem”, (because that never works) – deepfake videos rely on the sensational nature of their content to make them viral, but hopefully, the mere mass sharing and viral nature of the number of such videos doing the rounds themselves, make them ineffective in the long run, as it will hopefully take away from the apparent sensationalism and one off-ness – an unfortunate reality?
But while the world awaits a fool proof tool or application that can prevent the creation of deepfake videos, perhaps a lone hope is that with the widespread proliferation of such videos, people will stop paying any attention to them eventually, they will lose their sensational appeal and hence, will not inflict the harm they were originally meant to in the first place – after all, it is not just the person who creates the video, but those who watch it, share it, and help it take on viral status, in effect, becoming complicit in the victim’s suffering, who must be stopped.
While internet policing is a challenging task, we hope that the issue of deepfake videos is resolved soon, because everyone who is targeted might not have a massive social media following to refute the fake nature of the video in the first place, and while Aroob and Ducky have our sympathy, it is on all of us to practice a degree of internet policing and call out disturbing content that violates the individual targeted in the video – act now, to prevent the next one from being made.
On the other hand, if Ducky actually does manage to find the creator of the deepfake, this will also be a great step in holding those who commit internet crimes in anonymity, accountable for their actions – these are criminals who normally feel safe that they will never be found out. It will hopefully serve as a warning to many others who might be thinking of indulging in the same act.
This is a developing story, if we missed something, please add to the conversation in comments below.
