Bombay High Court seeks report on Telegram DeepFake bots creating fake nudes of women

New Delhi: Social media app Telegram is often been cited as a haven for illegal activities. A group of researchers has unearthed a DeepFake ecosystem rampant on Telegram. These researchers found that many DeepFake bots available on Telegram are generating fake nudes of women, using their social media photos. These photos are reportedly circulated on Telegram channels among users.

The researchers at a security firm called Sensity discovered this ecosystem. They revealed that more than 100,000 images were being exchanged in public Telegram channels as of July this year. This number does not include the images that were generated by DeepFake bots but were never shared.

Taking a cognisance of a newspaper report in this connection, the Bombay High Court has asked the government to gather information and prepare a report on the bots, powered by artificial intelligence, that creates fake nudes of women using their pictures. These bots are reported to have targeted over 104,000 women, and a good chunk of bots users belongs to India.

The Bombay HC has this directive to probe the report while hearing petitions against media trial in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.

On Wednesday, the DNA report tried to understand the modus operandi involved in it. You will be surprised to know that this has happened with around one lakh women across the world. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, the pictures of these women were converted into pornographic images and were shared on Telegram. The AI technology used to make such videos is called DeepFake. Now, people are clueless as to how these pictures will be removed.

Crores of these pictures are in the form of selfies and the number of female pictures is much higher than men. You should know that cybercriminals can steal your pictures and can easily convert them into pornographic images with the help of DeepFake.  

Now, the question comes to min how the photos of these one lakh women can be removed from the Internet? The answer is no. If objectionable content related to you has been uploaded on the Internet, you cannot remove it completely. You can, however, ask for the removal of the objectionable content through a notice under the IT Act of India. 

To save yourself from the menace of DeepFake, you should avoid posting your close up pictures on social media. The technology should be developed to identify DeepFake and it should also reach common people so that they do not fall prey to fake news and fake videos.

You can also lodge your complaint against such objectionable content on social media. You are given an online option to report at all major social media platforms against harassment. 

Almost every state has a Cyber ​​Cell department. However, if you wish, you can also inform the National Cyber ​​Crime Reporting Portal. You can also report to the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development through an e-mail.