In a warning to all political parties, the Election Commission of India has asked them to avoid using deepfakes and other kinds of false material in their social media postings during the current general elections in the nation. The action follows complaints that the constitutional authority did not do enough to counter such initiatives in the most populated country on Earth.
Released on Monday (PDF), the advice mandates that political parties erase any deepfake audio or video as soon as they learn of its existence, which is three hours. Parties should also locate and notify the individuals who produced the modified information. The Election Commission’s move comes after a petitioner brought up the issue, and the Delhi High Court ordered the body to settle it.
Over 1.5 billion people call India home. The country started its general elections on April 19 and will end on June 1. Debates over the deployment of deepfakes and false information have already dragged the election down.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said late last month that a plot to create animosity in society was behind the use of phony voices to supposedly depict officials saying things they had “never even thought of.”
The main opposition party in the country, the Indian National Congress, has had at least six members of its social media teams detained by the Indian police for sharing a phony film that purports to show Home Minister Amit Shah saying things he never said.
India has been struggling for a few months now. Indian IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw “reached a consensus” in November after meeting with major social media firms like Google and Meta that regulations were required to better stop the proliferation of deepfake films and the programs that enable their production.
In January, a different IT minister issued a warning to IT businesses about harsh consequences, including bans, if they did not actively combat deepfake films. The country still has to enact its proposed deep-fake policy.
The Election Commission said on Monday that it has been “repeatedly directing” the heads of the political parties to “maintain decorum and the utmost restraint in public campaigning.”.
