New Delhi (Parliament Politics Magazine) — As voters lined up to cast their ballots in Telangana’s legislative elections on November 30, 2023, a brief video clip started going viral on social media. The seven-second clip, posted on X by the Congress party, appeared to show KT Rama Rao, a leader of the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), urging voters to support the Congress.
However, the clip was not what it seemed. According to a senior Congress leader, the video was AI-generated and designed to deceive voters just as the polls opened. Despite its inauthenticity, the clip was viewed over 500,000 times on the party’s official X account.
This incident highlights the increasing use of AI-generated deepfakes in India’s recent elections—a trend that is expected to intensify as the country heads into its general elections between March and May 2024. The rising prevalence of such deceptive media has sparked concerns about its potential to disrupt democratic processes.
Political parties across India, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, are reportedly utilizing AI tools to create and distribute deepfakes to influence voters. With the availability of AI tools, some free and others accessible for minimal subscription fees, deepfakes have become an affordable and powerful tool in modern election campaigns.
The BJP has a history of using advanced technology in its campaigns. In 2012, the party used 3D hologram projections of Modi to virtually campaign across multiple locations simultaneously. In 2020, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari became one of the first politicians globally to use deepfakes in his campaign, addressing voters in multiple languages using AI-generated videos.
Other parties have also embraced AI for political purposes. In Tamil Nadu, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) used AI to create lifelike videos of their late leader M Karunanidhi during campaign events.
As the 2024 general elections approach, the use of deepfakes is expected to surge. Arun Reddy, the national coordinator for social media at Congress, emphasized the role of AI in shaping political narratives. He noted that AI tools could rapidly alter public perception, turning campaigns on their heads with a single click.
The rise of AI in politics has also led to ethical dilemmas. Divyendra Singh Jadoun, founder of the AI startup The Indian Deepfaker, shared that while his company has worked on legitimate projects, such as cloning voices for campaign messages, they have also received numerous unethical requests to create deepfakes for smear campaigns. Jadoun’s company has rejected over 50 such requests but acknowledges that others in the industry are willing to take on these projects for a fee.
The increasing use of deepfakes has led to legal and regulatory challenges in India. Currently, Indian laws do not specifically address deepfakes, leading law enforcement to rely on existing statutes related to defamation, fake news, and the Information Technology Act to tackle individual cases. However, these measures often fall short of addressing the broader threat posed by AI-generated media.
Experts and former officials like SY Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner of India, have called for more proactive measures to counter the impact of deepfakes on elections. Quraishi stressed the importance of real-time moderation and swift action by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to prevent deepfakes from undermining the electoral process.
The Indian government has urged major tech companies, including Google and Meta, to take a more active role in moderating deepfakes on their platforms. However, critics argue that the current approach is insufficient and that tech companies need to redesign algorithms to prevent the spread of polarizing and deceptive content.
As India prepares for its upcoming elections, the challenge posed by deepfakes looms large. With low digital literacy and a growing reliance on social media for information, the risk of AI-generated misinformation swaying voters has never been greater. While efforts to curb the spread of deepfakes are ongoing, the future of India’s electoral integrity remains uncertain.