The video has been modified to make it seem as though Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh is speaking in an inebriated state.
Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has become the victim of a ‘prank’ on the popular smartphone app TikTok. However, the state police has registered a criminal case and is starting a full-fledged inquiry into what seems to be much more than a prank.
A TikTok user allegedly generated a one-minute doctored video of the chief minister, creating an impression that he was under the influence of an intoxicant. The video used for this is a recent one where the CM was speaking about the recent flood threats in the state; the modified video has slowed down his voice to make it sound as though he’s speaking in an inebriated state.
The video was initially circulated on a WhatsApp group, ‘Youth group nabhaz’, and also uploaded on a Facebook page called ‘Majha Akali Page’.
The Cyber Cell of the Punjab Police Saturday registered cases under various sections of the IPC and the IT Act after the morphed video went viral on the social media.
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What is TikTok?
TikTok, earlier called Musical.ly, is a Chinese app with millions of active users across the world. The app allows users to create and edit videos by superimposing their own expressions on popular song clips or dialogues. The user can also add special effects to the videos they create.
The app’s popularity has led to the creation of a whole class of TikTok celebrities, some of whom have millions of followers. Several established actors and celebrities also use the app and put out their own stuff for their fans.
However, like most such sites, there is very little or no regulation of the content generated.
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What the police are doing
A spokesman for the Punjab Police said that cases have been registered against unknown persons, with preliminary inquiries revealing that the CM’s video was been uploaded by someone with the username “Harsh Sofat” (@harshsofat9). The police have also initiated steps to get the content removed from all social media sites.
The user, according to the police, follows two accounts — ‘thiscouple’ (@mdeepkur87) and ‘Being Nawaz’ (@funnyyadavji), and has three followers, ‘@Happy mundhon’ (@sukhdevsukhahappy), ‘Oyekhurmi’ (@oyekhurmi) and ‘Kinda Kinda’ (@kindakinda9) on the TikTok app.
The spokesman said since the video has been wilfully manipulated, uploaded and circulated on social media platforms with the sole intent of tarnishing the CM’s image, cases under Sections 67 of IT Act 2008, and Section 500 and 505 of the IPC have been registered.