Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy on Thursday said that several deepfake videos featuring him have surfaced on social media in recent months and asked internet users to not fall for them.

Deepfakes are techniques to manipulate audio and video content with the help of artificial intelligence software to show people saying or doing things that they never said or did. The content is made to appear as realistic as possible and is often used with malicious intent.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Murthy said that some web pages have claimed he has endorsed or invested in automated trading applications named BTC AI Evex, British Bitcoin Profit, Bit Lyte Sync, Immediate Momentum and Capitalix Ventures among others.

“The news items appear on fraudulent websites that masquerade as popular newspaper websites and some of them even publish fake interviews using deepfake pictures and videos,” he said. “I categorically deny any endorsement, relation or association with these applications or websites.”

He added: “I caution the public to not fall prey to the content of these malicious sites and to the products or services they are trying to sell to you.”

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Murthy asked internet users to report any such deepfake videos they come across to regulatory authorities.

This comes days after journalist Ravish Kumar said that a deepfake video featuring him was being circulated on social media where he is seen endorsing an alleged medication for diabetes.

“For several days people have been asking me if I have done an advertisement for diabetes medicine,” Kumar said in a video he shared on Twitter. “Many people are also buying the medicine after seeing my face and hearing my voice in the video. Please do not fall for such a hoax, somebody is misusing my voice and face. I have not promoted any such product.”

Besides Kumar, deepfake videos of several other Indian television news anchors had been circulated promoting the alleged medication, Boomlive reported earlier this month.

On November 24, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the Centre will assist citizens in filing first information reports against social media companies for violating the Information Technology Act, 2021, if they are aggrieved by objectionable and misleading content such as deepfakes on the platforms.

Minister for Electronics and Information Technology and Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw said on November 27 that the Central government will soon frame regulations to tackle the challenge of deepfakes.

He had also warned social media platforms that the safe harbour immunity clause under the Information Technology Act would not apply if they did not take steps to remove deepfakes. The safe harbour clause protects social media intermediaries such as Google and Facebook from legal action against them for content posted online by their users.