Doctored Videos Of Politicians Circulate In India, Pakistan Ahead Of Elections 2024

The AI technology to create deepfakes is extremely good. By using very little effort, people can now make Deepfakes instantaneously. It is very difficult to tell if it’s real or fake. The concerning thing is that there are no guidelines on deep fakes, and that’s worrying, as it has the potential to impact how a person votes. We all know that elections 2024 are going to be held in Pakistan and India quite soon. We have been seeing different doctored videos of famous politicians like Imran Khan, and Narendra Modi on social media platforms. Misinformation is rife on social media platforms, with these deep fakes. The videos or audio made using AI and broadcast as authentic are quite concerning. It can play an important role in deceiving voters in India, and Pakistan.

Deepfakes Can Deceive Voters In India, Pakistan Before Elections 2024

Recently, Instagram reels of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi singing in regional languages went viral. There were also TikTok videos of Indonesian presidential candidates Prabowo Subianto and Anies Baswedan speaking in fluent Arabic. These videos were all created with AI, and posted with no label.

Modi Ji singing a super hit Tamil song 😜 – Powered by AI

Thanks @indhavaainko pic.twitter.com/jCe2kfzQkH

— Balaji M S (@MSBalajiMSB) September 30, 2023

We all know that elections are due in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan in the coming weeks. In India, there are more than 900m people eligible to vote. According to Modi, deepfake videos are a “big concern” and authorities have warned social media platforms as well. The social platforms could lose their safe-harbor status which protects them from penalties for third-party content posted on their sites if they do not act.

In Pakistan, elections are scheduled for Feb 8. The former premier Imran Khan, who is in prison in an Official Secrets Acts case, used an AI-generated image and voice clone to address an online election rally in December. It succeeded in drawing more than 1.4 million views on YouTube and was attended live by tens of thousands. Pakistan has drafted an AI law. Digital rights activists have criticized the lack of barriers against disinformation. Nighat Dad, co-founder of the non-profit Digital Rights Foundation stated:

“The threat that disinformation poses to elections and the overall democratic process in Pakistan cannot be stressed upon enough”

In Indonesia, there are approximately 200m voters that will go to polls on Feb 14. The deepfakes of all three presidential candidates and their running mates are surfacing online. They have the potential to influence election outcomes according to Nuurrianti Jalli, who studies misinformation on social media.