Ggm Police roll out cyber safety helpline for women

Gurugram police launched "Digital Saheli," a helpline for women's digital safety, addressing issues like deepfakes and online harassment within 24 hours.

The Gurugram police on Friday launched “Digital Saheli,” a special helpline to ensure digital safety for women by providing assistance within 24 hours of their complaint regarding AI-generated deepfake videos, online harassment, among others.

The helpline was launched at an event in the city by Gurugram police commissioner Vikar Kumar Arora, who said that an eight-member team with expertise in cybercrime will oversee the complaints. (HR)

The helpline was launched at an event in the city by Gurugram police commissioner Vikas Kumar Arora, who said that an eight-member team with expertise in cybercrime will oversee the complaints.

According to officials, an anti-deepfake and sextortion rapid response unit has been formed to assist women whose photographs or videos have been edited, morphed, or circulated in objectionable forms on social media platforms. Once the helpline receives a complaint, the unit will take action within 24 hours to remove the content and initiate legal proceedings against the suspects.

Officials said that women can contact the help desk by calling 9999981002 or Gurugram Police’s chatbot on 9599964777. The unit will function from the women’s police station in Sector 51.

“Any deepfake video, photograph, or any other content used to harass any woman will be taken down or deleted from all kinds of social media platforms within six to 24 hours,” said Arora.

“The identity of victims or complainants will be kept confidential to encourage more women to report incidents without fear or hesitation. We will also urge them to get an FIR but in case of hesitation, we will resolve the issue by deleting the content and the profiles of the suspects,” said Arora, adding that victims will also receive counselling, mental health support, and emotional guidance.

Priyanshu Dewan, ACP (cybercrime) said that the desk will remain in contact with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, among others.

“The victim will only have to provide the URL of the content to the help desk. We may even detain the perpetrator if required,” he said.

Dewan said that victims can file complaints for threats, abuses, cyberstalking, sextortion, AI-generated objectionable videos and photographs, among other issues.

DCP (headquarters) Arpit Jain, DCP (East) Gaurav Rajpurohit, ACP (crime against women) Surinder Kaur were also present during the launch.

To be sure, the Union government has notified amendments requiring photorealistic AI-generated content to be prominently labelled and significantly shortening timelines for takedown of illegal material, including non-consensual deepfakes. The changes, under the Information Technology Act, 2021, came into force on February 20. Under the amended rules, social media platforms will now have between 2-3 hours to remove certain categories of unlawful content, a sharp reduction from the earlier 24-36 hour window.