FIA launches probe into Maryam Nawaz's AI video

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cybercrime Wing has initiated an inquiry into individuals involved in editing and spreading doctored images and videos of Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Maryam Nawaz and United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on social media.

The doctored images and deepfake videos circulated on the internet after Nawaz, while accompanying Pakistani Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif on January 5, greeted the Emirati President with a handshake.

Lahore’s FIA Cybercrime Wing has stated that action will be taken against individuals involved in uploading AI-generated videos and fake images - whether the culprits are situated in Pakistan or abroad.

The News quoted FIA sources who have reported that 10 social media accounts have been identified for allegedly spreading fabricated content intended to propagate negative narratives.

Deepfakes that manipulate genuine audio, photos, or video of people into false likenesses are becoming increasingly convincing and easier to make as AI enters the mainstream.

In May 2022, the FIA Cybercrime Wing arrested a man in Peshawar on charges of circulating fake videos of Maryam Nawaz on social media, specifically on X (formerly Twitter).

Doctored images and fake videos are used to discredit individuals' roles in society, and politicians, actresses, and well-known social media activists have been victims of this in recent years.

Earlier, Punjab Information Minister Azma Zahid Bokhari had been the victim of the deepfake video. 

In an interview with the Associated France Press (AFP), she voiced the urgency of tackling fake images Bokhari asserted that the judiciary and the system of police need to be modernised to counter such issues as deepfake videos are frequently used to discredit women.

In Pakistan, where media literacy is poor, AI is weaponised to defame women in the public sphere with sexual innuendo deeply damaging to their reputations in a country with conservative mores.