#FactCheck - Viral video of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh supporting Israeli attacks on Iran is a deepfake

Introduction

The development of high-speed broadband internet in the 90s triggered a growth in online gaming, particularly in East Asian countries like South Korea and China. This culminated in the proliferation of competitive video game genres, which had otherwise existed mostly in the form of high-score and face-to-face competitions at arcades. The online competitive gaming market has only become bigger over the years, with a separate domain for professional competition, called esports. This industry is projected to reach US$4.3 billion by 2029,  driven by advancements in gaming technology, increased viewership, multi-million dollar tournaments, professional leagues, sponsorships, and advertising revenues. However, the industry is still in its infancy and struggles with fairness and integrity issues. It can draw lessons in regulation from the traditional sports market to address these challenges for uniform global growth.

The Growth of Esports

The appeal of online gaming lies in its design innovations, social connectivity, and accessibility. Its rising popularity has culminated in online gaming competitions becoming an industry, formally organised into leagues and tournaments with reward prizes reaching up to millions of dollars. Professional teams now have coaches, analysts and psychologists supporting their players. For scale, the 2024 ESports World Cup (EWS) held in Saudi Arabia had the largest combined prize pool of over US$60 million. Such tournaments can be viewed in arenas and streamed online, and by 2025, around 322.7 million people are forecast to be occasional viewers of esports events. 

According to Statista, esports revenue is expected to demonstrate an annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2029) of 6.59%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$5.9 billion by 2029. Esports has even been recognised in traditional sporting events, debuting as a medal sport in the Asian Games 2022. In 2024, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the Olympic Esports Games, with the inaugural event set to take place in 2025 in Saudi Arabia. Hosting esports events such as the EWS is expected to boost tourism and the host country’s local economy.

The Challenges of Esports Regulation

While the esports ecosystem provides numerous opportunities for growth and partnerships, its under-regulation presents challenges. Due to the lack of a single governing body like the IOC for the Olympics or FIFA for football to lay down centralised rules, the industry faces certain challenges, such as : 

1. Integrity issues: Esports are not immune to cheating attempts. Match-fixing, using advanced software hacks, doping (e.g., Adderall use), and the use of other illegal aids are common.  DOTA, Counter-Strike, and Overwatch tournaments are particularly susceptible to cheating scandals. 
2. Players’ Rights: The teams that contractually own professional players provide remuneration and exercise significant control over athletes, who face issues like overwork, a short-lived career, stress, the absence of collective bargaining forums, instability, etc. 
3. Fragmented National Regulations: While multiple countries have recognised esports as a sport, policies on esports governance and allied regulation vary within and across borders. For example, age restrictions and laws on gambling, taxation, labour, and advertising differ by country. This can create confusion, risks and extra costs, impacting the growth of the ecosystem. 
4. Cybersecurity Concerns: The esports industry carries substantial prize pools and has growing viewer engagement, which makes it increasingly vulnerable to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, malware, ransomware, data breaches, phishing, and account hijacking. Tournament organisers must prioritise investments in secure network infrastructure, perform regular security audits, encrypt sensitive data, implement network monitoring, utilise API penetration testing tools, deploy intrusion detection systems, and establish comprehensive incident response and mitigation plans.

Proposals for Esports Regulation: Lessons from Traditional Sports

To address the most urgent challenges to the esports industry as outlined above,  the following interventions, drawing on the governance and regulatory frameworks of traditional sports, can be made:

1. Need for a Centralised Esports Governing Body: Unlike traditional sports, the esports landscape lacks a Global Sports Organisation (GSO) to oversee its governance. Instead, it is handled de facto by game publishers with industry interests different from those of traditional GSOs. Publishers’ primary source of revenue is not esports, which means they can adopt policies unsuitable for its growth but good for their core business. Appointing a centralised governing body with the power to balance the interests of multiple stakeholders and manage issues like unregulated gambling, athlete health, and integrity challenges is a logical next step for this industry. 
2. Gambling/Betting Regulations: While national laws on gambling/betting vary, GSOs establish uniform codes of conduct that bind participants contractually, ensuring consistent ethical standards across jurisdictions. Similar rules in esports are managed by individual publishers/ tournament organisers, leading to inconsistencies and legal grey areas. The esports ecosystem needs standardised regulation to preserve fair play codes and competitive integrity.
3. Anti-Doping Policies: There is increasing adderall abuse among young players to enhance performance with the rising monetary stakes in esports. The industry must establish a global framework similar to the  World Anti-Doping Code, which, in conjunction with eight international standards, harmonises anti-doping policies across all traditional sports and countries in the world. The esports industry should either adopt this or develop its own policy to curb stimulant abuse. 
4. Norms for Participant Health:  Professional players start around age 16 or 17 and tend to retire around 24. They may be subjected to rigorous practice hours and stringent contracts by the teams that own them. There is a need for international norm-setting by a federation overseeing the protection of underage players. Enforcement of these norms can be one of the responsibilities of a decentralised system comprising country and state-level bodies. This also ensures fair play governance.
5. Respect and Diversity:  While esports is technologically accessible, it still has room for better representation of diverse gender identities, age groups, abilities, races, ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations. Embracing greater diversity and inclusivity would benefit the industry's growth and enhance its potential to foster social connectivity through healthy competition.

Conclusion

The development of the world’s first esports island in Abu Dhabi gives impetus to the rapidly growing esports industry with millions of fans across the globe. To sustain this momentum, stakeholders must collaborate to build a strong governance framework that protects players, supports fans, and strengthens the ecosystem. By learning from traditional sports, esports can establish centralised governance, enforce standardised anti-doping measures, safeguard athlete rights, and promote inclusivity, especially for young and diverse communities. Embracing regulation and inclusivity will not only enhance esports' credibility but also position it as a powerful platform for unity, creativity, and social connection in the digital age.

Resources

• https://www.statista.com/outlook/amo/esports/worldwide
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/490480/global-esports-audience-size-viewer-type/ 
• https://asoworld.com/blog/global-esports-market-report-2024/#:~:text=A%20key%20driver%20of%20this%20growth%20is%20the%20Sponsorship%20%26%20Advertising,US%24288.9%20million%20in%202024. 
• https://lawschoolpolicyreview.com/2023/12/28/a-case-for-recognising-professional-esports-players-as-employees-of-their-game-publisher/ 
• https://levelblue.com/blogs/security-essentials/the-hidden-risks-of-esports-cybersecurity-on-the-virtual-battlefield 
• https://medium.com/@heyimJoost/esports-governance-and-its-failures-9ac7b3ec37ea 
• https://www.google.com/search?q=adderall+abuse+in+esports&oq=adderall+abuse+in+esports&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRiPAjIHCAIQIRiPAtIBCDU2MDdqMGo5qAIAsAIB&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 
• https://americanaddictioncenters.org/blog/esports-adderall-abuse#:~:text=A%202020%20piece%20by%20the,it%20because%20everyone%20was%20using

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Executive Summary

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A video is going viral on social media with the claim that ₹500 Indian currency notes were found inside a bag during the floods in Nepal. A research by CyberPeace’s research wing found that the video is not from the recent floods in Nepal, but from Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh. The video was uploaded on July 14 by an Instagram creator on their account. The 30-second video shows people travelling in a boat finding a bag floating in the water, from which several ₹500 currency notes are pulled out.

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Claim: 

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The video has been shared on X with a caption claiming that Nepal is witnessing widespread destruction following severe floods, with people seen wading through muddy, debris-filled water to search for and recover their belongings. The caption further claims that people found a bag containing ₹500 Indian currency notes and were seen rejoicing over the discovery. It also cautions that entering fast-flowing, debris-filled floodwater is extremely dangerous.

‍https://x.com/SanjuKu79832010/status/2093238274206887946 

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Fact Check:

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To verify the viral video claiming that a bag containing ₹500 Indian currency notes was found during the floods in Nepal, we conducted a reverse image search using keyframes from the footage. The search led us to a video uploaded on the Instagram account ‘parshuram_676’ on July 14, 2024.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Daw7aYJAjoc/ 

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Additionally, we found the same boat seen in the viral video in several other videos uploaded on the same Instagram account.

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Not only that, we also found several videos with visuals similar to those in the viral video uploaded on the same video creator’s Facebook account. The information provided on the Facebook account also lists Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, as the location.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567184794045 

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Conclusion:

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The evidence gathered during our research clearly establishes that the video being circulated with the claim that ₹500 Indian currency notes were found inside a bag during the floods in Nepal was actually filmed by a video creator in Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh.

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Introduction: 

The G7 Summit is an international forum that includes member states from France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada and the European Union (EU). The annual G7 meeting that is held every year was hosted by Japan this year in May 2023. It took place in Hiroshima. Artificial Intelligence (AI) was the major theme of this G7 summit. Key takeaways from this G7 summit highlight that leaders together focused on escalating the adoption of AI for beneficial use cases across the economy and the government and improving the governing structure to mitigate the potential risks of AI. 

Need for fair and responsible use of AI:

The G7 recognises that they really need to work together to ensure the responsible and fair use of AI to help establish technical standards for the same. Members of the G7 countries agreed to adopt an open and enabling environment for the development of AI technologies.  They also emphasized that AI regulations should be based on democratic values. G7 summit calls for the responsible use of AI. The ministers discussed the risks involved in AI technology programs like ChatGPT. They came up with an action plan for promoting responsible use of AI with human beings leading the efforts. 

Further Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US, and the EU) met virtually on 7 September 2023 and committed to creating ‘international guiding principles applicable for all AI actors’, and a code of conduct for organisations developing ‘advanced’ AI systems. 

What is HAP (Hiroshima AI Process)

Hiroshima AI Process (HAP) aims to establish trustworthy AI technical standards at the international level. The G7 agreed on creating a ministerial forum to prompt the fair use of AI. Hiroshima AI Process (HAP) is an effort by G7 to determine a way forward to regulate AI. The HAP establishes a forum for international discussions on inclusive AI governance and interoperability to achieve a common vision and goal of trustworthy AI at the global level.

The HAP will be operating in close connection with organisations including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI).

This Hiroshima AI Process (HAP) initiated at the Annual G7 Summit held in Hiroshima, Japan is a significant step towards regulating AI and the Hiroshima AI Process (HAP) is likely to conclude by December 2023.

G7 leaders emphasized fostering an environment where trustworthy AI systems are designed, developed and deployed for the common good worldwide. They advocated for international standards and interoperable tools for trustworthy AI that enable Innovation by creating a comprehensive policy framework, including overall guiding principles for all AI actors in the AI ecosystem.

Stressing upon fair use of advanced technologies:

The impact and misuse of generative AI was also discussed by the G7 leaders. The G7 members also stressed misinformation and disinformation in the realm of generative AI models. As they are capable of creating synthetic content such as deepfakes. In particular, they noted that the next generation of interactive generative media will leverage targeted influence content that is highly personalized, localized, and conversational. 

In the digital landscape, there is a rapid advancement of technologies such as generative 

Artificial Intelligence (AI), deepfake, machine learning, etc. Such technologies offer convenience to users in performing several tasks and are capable of assisting individuals and business entities. Since these technologies are easily accessible, cyber-criminals leverage AI tools and technologies for malicious activities, hence certain regulatory mechanisms at the global level will ensure and advocate for the ethical, reasonable and fair use of such advanced technologies. 

Conclusion: 

The G7 summit held in May 2023 focused on advanced international discussions on inclusive AI governance and interoperability to achieve a common vision and goal of trustworthy AI, in line with shared democratic values. AI governance has become a global issue, countries around the world are coming forward and advocating for the responsible and fair use of AI and influence on global AI governance and standards. It is significant to establish a regulatory framework that defines AI capabilities and identifies areas prone to misuse. And set forth reasonable technical standards while also fostering innovations. Hence overall prioritizing data privacy, integrity, and security in the evolving nature of advanced technologies. 

References:

• https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/07/3e39b82d-464d-403a-b6cb-dc0e1bdec642-230906_Ministerial-clean-Draft-Hiroshima-Ministers-Statement68.pdf
• https://www.g7hiroshima.go.jp/en/summit/about/
• https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/the-hiroshima-ai-process-for-global-ai-governance
• https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/hiroshima-ai-process-g7-calls-for-adoption-of-international-technical-standards-for-ai-382121-2023-05-20

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