Somy Ali on Deepfakes: 'Forwarding Is Participation'
Actress-turned-activist Somy Ali says deepfakes now threaten ordinary women, not just celebrities, but AI can also help abuse survivors seek help safely.
Key Highlights
- The threat: Somy Ali says deepfake tools have become so easy to use that anyone's image can be misused in minutes.
- Satire vs abuse: She says caricature is fair, but creating fake sexual or degrading content without consent is not.
- Shared blame: "The person who shares is not a spectator. Forwarding is participation."
- The other side: Through her NGO No More Tears, she sees AI helping survivors seek support privately, in their own language.
Somy Ali, known for films such as Anth, Teesra Kaun?, Chupp, Krishna Avtaar and Andolan, now works with survivors of abuse and exploitation through her NGO, No More Tears. She says the conversation around deepfakes has moved far beyond celebrity scandals.
"The gap between 'possible' and 'everyday' has closed," she says. A stolen video and a few minutes, she points out, can now be enough to place a woman in a situation she was never part of, and the content can spread before the victim even knows.
Where Satire Ends
Having worked in films, Somy says public figures have always had their images edited, caricatured or satirised, and political cartoons are part of democratic life. But manufacturing illegal, sexual or humiliating acts using someone's face is different.
