Deepfakes and AI-generated Content: A Threat to Democracy in India’s 2024 Elections

In the digital age, where information flows at lightning speed, the integrity of our political discourse has become increasingly fragile due to the rise of Deepfakes and AI-generated Content.The upcoming 2024 general elections of India, the world’s largest democracy has been confronted with a brand new category of challenges manifested in the form of deep fakes, AI-generated content and misinformation. Having almost 1 billion internet users, Indian digital arena is a great place for political campaigns, but this platform also could be a reason for election integrity vulnerability.

What are Deepfakes and AI-Generated Content?

The most popular form of AI applied in deceptive media now is deepfakes. They use AI to make fake images, audio, or videos of a person which have been manipulated. Such a deceit is so subtle and smart so that you will have no idea to seperate the real look from the virtual one. AI content, just as human-generated content, bears such features as text, visuals or sometimes entire articles, which are all generated specifically by AI systems.

Deepfakes and AI-generated Content: An Erosion of Democracy

In recent weeks, political parties in India have started using AI in their increasingly strange but harmful tactics, employing deep fakes to deceive voters and manipulate the election discourse. Someone widely shared a brief, AI-generated, and completely false video on social media platforms. The video showed a political figure encouraging people to vote against the rival party.

The video circulated among WhatsApp groups affiliated with the Congress party before they posted it on their official account. As of present, it has garnered an audience of over 500,000 views.

The use of deepfakes and AI-generated content is not limited to the opposition party. Teams across India’s political parties, including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are deploying deepfakes to influence voters. The organizers of nearly 40 recent political campaigns consider utilizing artificial intelligence to influence voters a strategic element.

As of today, Indian laws have not definitively outlined the concept of “deepfakes,” leaving law enforcement agencies powerless to bring individual cases to the court of justice. The Election Commission of India (ECI) which is an autonomous body that controls all polling, needs to catch up with the changing political campaign environments. In the past, the ECI has called out political organizations to be more cautious against deepfakes, but with little effect.

Promoting Transparency and Accountability.

Meta which is a parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp has been choosing to curb hate speech, misinformation, and inflammatory posts especially anti-Muslim hate speech and misinformation in India. Fake accounts linked to government agencies have been spreading falsehoods and hateful content.

As a policy, the Meta company has incorporated Press Trust of India’s (PTI) dedicated fact-checking unit within the newswire’s editorial department as one of its third-party fact checkers in India. Meta is running a network of 12 Indian partners who are covering 16 Indian languages and English, making the Indian network the largest in the country.

In addition, Meta has announced that it will adopt a rather cautious approach in connection with new technologies such as generative Artificial Intelligence. Generative AI is capable of creating videos, audio recordings, and images that closely resemble content from political figures, authorities, or media outlets. Subsequently, these deceptive media creations have the potential to undermine the integrity of electoral processes. They can also stir up violence, hatred, or discrimination against religious minorities.

The Role of Online Platforms

Technology will most probably be the key factor in India’s next election campaign because political rivals will compete in the social media sphere. Google has experienced a sharp rise in political advertisements coming from political parties in India prior to the voting for which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the biggest advertiser among political parties on both Google and Facebook.

Although the democratization of AI tools which are cost-effective and require no technical skills poses a new challenge, it can also provide an opportunity. Malicious actors can use these devices to create fake content. This fake content can then undermine the integrity of elections, leading to chaos, discrimination, or violence against religious minorities.

Indian government has tight control over online spaces and usually shuts criticism and dissent in recent years. As for the Chinese case they have prohibited no less than 500 apps and have the right to switch off the internet, which can result in undemocratic choices of the electorate.

Conclusion

Deepfakes, AI-made material, and fake news are ushering in a new set of challenges for India during its April 2024 election, which is already an arduous task. The Internet which nowadays has more than a billion users in India is facilitating the involvement of political campaigning providing ground, while it is really challenging the election process integrity.

A short video showed a political leader telling people not to vote for the other party. This video was fake, made using artificial intelligence, and widely shared on social media. The Indian government and ECI must be aware of how politics is changing. They need to take proactive action on how deepfakes and alternative intelligence content can change the state of politics in the 21st century.