2024 is a year of election not just in India but in several other major democracies, including the USA, the UK and South Africa. One digital problem that looms large over all democracies that are going to election this year is that of deep fakes.
Top politicians in India, the USA, the UK and South Africa have voiced their concern about deep fakes disseminating wrong information to sway the voters. At the Munich Security Conference in February 2024, tech giants pledged to fight AI deep fakes ahead of elections in several democratic countries.
Deep fakes, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, are videos or sound recordings that mimic reality so perfectly that the average consumer will be led to believe that what he is seeing or hearing is real.
Advancements in Machine Learning (ML) and state-of-the-art AI algorithms are facilitating the creation of synthetic videos that are lifelike. There have been several instances of videos of real events being tampered to produce content that gives a misleading picture of what actually happened. With the passage of time, the AI technologies for producing deep fakes are getting better and better at producing content that mirrors reality.
Cybercriminals employ facial mapping and voice matching technologies to construct precise facial consonance datasets. Deep fakes are being used in pornography and for creating content that can damage someone’s reputation, and even lead to large scale financial, social and political problems.
In the time of elections, deep fake videos of major political figures can sow seeds of confusion in the mind of the voters and this can have an impact on the outcome of the elections. Therefore, the deep fakes pose a serious threat to the democratic system.
The Internet Freedom Foundation has written an open letter insisting that electoral nominees and parties willingly abstain from employing deep fake technology before the national elections. Most democratic nations are now working to regulate AI.
The United States has established a Deep Fake Task Force. The United Kingdom (UK) is working to introduce guidelines for AI-generated videos and photos. The European Union (EU) has enforced the Digital Services Act, which stipulates that social media firms should label their content to enable the viewers to understand if what they are watching is real or synthetic. Canada too is working to regulate deep fakes.
In India, explicit laws that address the problem of deep fakes are yet to be enacted but the existing laws can be used to handle the problem. For instance, the Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which has the provision of penalty for maligning an individual, can be used to prosecute the creators of malicious deep fakes. The Information Technology Act 2000 (“IT Act”) – Sections 66E, 67, 67A and 72 criminalizes publishing or disseminating lewd content in electronic media.
The 2023 State of Deep fakes report by Home Security Heroes, a US-based organization, recognizes India as the sixth most vulnerable nation to the problem of deep fakes. In the past few months, deep fake content of several Indian celebrities have appeared in social media.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to deep fakes as a new age difficulty. He has called upon the international leaders to work together for regulating AI and saving society from the adverse consequences of deep fakes. The Election Commission of India (ECI) is monitoring the problem of deep fakes during the present elections. The media needs to spread increasing awareness in society.
To deal with the problem of deep fakes, the law and order machinery needs to develop new skills in digital forensics. Governments, tech giants, advocacy groups, policymakers, civil society institutions and academia must implement out-of-the-box solutions. AI technology is evolving at a fast pace and it is necessary that the law & order machinery should also evolve its digital strategies for combating the problems created by AI.
There is no silver bullet to this infodemic and thwarting it demands a multi-faceted strategy. Deep fakes are a new threat to the ongoing elections of India and it is crucial to combat this challenge on many fronts. Deep fakes have already had an impact on democratic elections. According to reports, the elections in Slovakia and Nigeria were impacted by synthetic AI generated video content. The jury is still out about the possibility of deep fakes playing a role in the major elections of 2024.
(Maj Gen (Dr) Pawan Anand is the Director of CANB and Distinguished Fellow, United Service Institution of India; Dr. Preethi Amaresh works at the Cyber Peace Foundation; Views are personal)
