Millions Watching Videos Online In India but Are They Fake?

Deepfakes on social media have become a huge problem lately, with many actors and public figures having to deal with this nefarious practice. Not only has the frequency of deepfake content increased in India, but the ability of synthetic AI-based applications to create more convincing and real-looking content has also seen rapid advancement. In fact, deepfake have even made their way to election-bound states in India, giving the government a significant reason to curb this menace.Now, according to a survey by LocalCircles, it was found that 30% of Indians watch a lot of videos that they later discover to be fake and want platforms to remove them within 24 hours. LocalCircles surveyed over 32,000 people across 319 districts in India. Out of this pool, 64% of the respondents were men, while 36% were women.43% of the Indians surveyed reported watching three or more short videos per day. Short form content ends taking up a considerable amount of time from people’s lives every day, be it YouTube shorts, Instagram Reels, or even WhatsApp forwards. LocalCircles asked people, on average, what percentage of short videos they watch on their phones, tablets, or laptops each day. 11,173 people replied to this question. 35% said that they rarely watch short videos, 22% indicated that they watch 1 to 2 videos per day, and 3% said that they watch 15 to 20 videos a day. On the extreme end, 4% of the responders said that they watch over 20 short videos a day.30% of the Indians surveyed claimed that they found 25% or more videos that they watched to be fake. Of the 10,838 people who responded to this, 37% said they’ve seen videos that turned out to be fake. 6% of those people said that over half of the videos they watched were fake, 24% said they watched 25% to 50% fake videos, 6% said it was anywhere between 10% to 25%, and 17% said it was 1% to 10%. In total, 30% of respondents said that 25% of the videos they watched were fake. LocalCircles highlights that 56% of surveyed Indians want the prompt removal of deepfake videos featuring themselves or their family members circulating on a social media platform. They say that the responsible platform should take down such content within 24 hours of receiving a complaint. Further, LocalCircles notes that this survey was conducted using the LocalCircles platform and “all participants were validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey.”