With the arrival of election season in India, remarkably fake videos have been put forward, posing a major threat to the public and even resulting in criminal investigations of their propagators. The videos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s top aides have turned out to be fake. It is uncertain how many people were fooled by the fact that this was the first AI election in India.
Prime Minister Modi is concerned about computer-aided deep fakes and audio synthetic materials used to create fake narratives that eventually lead to social tension. The Indian police had already been investigating the spread of fake videos that portrayed several Bollywood stars criticizing Modi.
Then, they turned their attention to a modified recording that featured a home minister, Amit Shah, speaking inappropriately about guarantees of social operations for minorities.
Minister Shah’s “original” and proposed speech was shared, where he accused the Congress party of making the edited video on which he intended to attack the party. However, the investigation culminated in six Congressmen’s social media teams in various States arrests that were found circulating the doctored video. The detention of a Managing national social media coordinator for the Congress, Arun Reddy, has led the New Delhi police cybercrime unit to a production displaying Congress workers.
India prepares to take part in the world’s largest democratic event that is also dubbed as the election, combating the spread and effect of misinformation is imperative. Law enforcement agencies and election personnel are earning their due, telling the social media houses to take down suspected destroyed content as investigations proceed. The occurrences pose many difficulties in keeping the electoral system free and impartial due to the routine use of manipulated videos and misleading narratives.
