THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In what could trigger wider discussions on creative freedom and censoring of content, the police cyber division has issued notices to social platforms to remove as many as 40 AI-generated videos that were critical of Chief Minister V D Satheesan and other UDF ministers on various topics, including the power crisis that Keralam has been facing.
Reliable sources told TNIE that the social media platforms removed the videos acting on the complaint of the cyber sleuths and among those purged include the AI video of Satheesan dancing with KSEB workers, which had gone viral. The video had generated about 1.8 crore views till Sunday. However, it was later restricted for Indian viewers by Meta on the basis of the directive issued by the cyber cops.
Sources said the purged content included AI videos depicting CM, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and some senior ministers in the UDF cabinet. The takedown of the content can also be attributed to ‘mass reporting’ done by UDF cyber handles. The cyber police also received seven complaints regarding such videos, said the sources.
However, sources in the cyber wing said the videos were taken off as the content creators/uploaders failed to comply with the regulations laid down in the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules. The removed videos did not clearly disclose that they were synthetic, which is mandatory as per rules, and hence the intermediaries were asked to take them down within three hours, sources added.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister V D Satheesan said, “The AI dance video that went viral on social media brought me a lot of personal joy.” However, he clarified that there are certain legal issues involved in the videos made using AI.
