EC cracks whip on deepfakes amid Lok Sabha polls: What did poll body say? Will it help?

As voting for the Lok Sabha polls continues, the Election Commission is looking to crack down on deepfakes.

The poll body in a letter warned all political parties not to use deepfakes. It also said they would be responsible for taking the content down in three hours.

The development came just days after the Delhi High Court on Thursday said it trusted the Election Commission of India (ECI) to deal with the issue and that it cannot devise a policy in the middle of elections.

But what did the Election Commission say? And what deepfakes have gone viral this poll season?

Let’s take a closer look:

What did EC say?

The EC put the onus of combatting deepfakes on political parties.

As per Moneycontrol, the EC in its missive wrote, “Whenever such deepfake audios/videos, come to the notice of political parties, they shall immediately take down the post but maximum within a period of three hours and also identify and warn the responsible person within the party.”

It also noted the harm that such videos could cause.

It said the use of such “manipulated, distorted, edited content on social media platforms has the potential to wrongfully sway voter opinions, deepen societal divisions, and erode trust in electioneering process by attacking laid out instrumentalities of the electoral steps in terms of means and material,” as per Indian Express.

“Further, the scale of spread of such misinformation has been observed to be dangerously unrestrained due to the availability of the option of forwarding/re sharing/ re-posting/ re-tweeting on the social media platforms," it added.

The poll body said parties could approach the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) under Rule 3A of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, in case of “continued presence of such unlawful information or fake user account after reporting to social media platform.”

Will it help?

A piece in Indian Express noted that the ECI is acting after two phases of the Lok Sabha polls. It said the real impact the ECI’s letter “remains to be seen.”

It also noted that some parties’ were sharing the deepfakes on their official handles and it is thus unclear what the poll body means when it says they should take down deepfakes when it comes to their notice.

It also stated that merely “warning” the person responsible for putting up such material on their social media “appears to be lacking teeth.”

The piece also noted that the Election Commission did not mention WhatsApp.

It said the app has over 500 million users in India and is “perhaps the most effective way to spread misinformation/ disinformation.”

Deepfakes going viral

This poll season has witnessed  number of deepfakes.

Two deepfake videos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee videos went viral.

The video of Modi was posted on 6 May.

It showed the prime minister walking and dancing on a stage.

Also on 6 May, a similar video of West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee was put up online.

The Cyber Crime division of Kolkata Police issued a notice two social media users for posting a clip of material that is “offensive, malicious, and inciting.”

“It has been observed that you are using social media for posting offensive, malicious and inciting posts. Cyber Police Station Kolkata hereby issues notice against you under Section 149 CrPC for posting such message," the post by the Kolkata Police stated.

“You are hereby directed to delete the above mentioned post and also refrain from such acts failing which you will be liable for strict penal action under relevant provision of law,” it added

Modi just said last week fake voices were being used to purportedly show leaders making “statements that we have never even thought of”, calling it a conspiracy “to create tension in society.”

A deepfake morphed clip of Union home minister Amit Shah was put up on social media.

In the fake video, Shah was purportedly seen announcing the curtailment of reservation rights of the SCs, STs and OBCs.

Shah retorted on X, posting his “original” and the edited “fake” speech and alleging — without providing any evidence — that the main opposition Congress was behind the video it created to mislead the public. The minister said “directions have been issued to the police to address this issue.”

The police arrested at least nine people, including six members of Congress’ social media teams, in the states of Assam, Gujarat, Telangana and New Delhi last week for circulating the fake video, according to police statements.

Five of the Congress workers were released on bail, but the most high-profile arrest made by the cyber crime unit of New Delhi police came on Friday, when they detained a Congress national social media coordinator, Arun Reddy, for sharing the video. New Delhi is one region where Shah’s ministry directly controls police. Reddy has been sent into three-day custody.

The Mumbai police in April registered a case against the Maharashtra Youth Congress’ social media handle and 16 others for allegedly sharing the deepfake.

This, after Mumbai BJP functionary Pratik Karpe filed a complaint at the Bandra Kurla Complex cyber police station.

Another fake video that sparked a storm last week showed Yogi Adityanath, the state’s chief minister, criticizing Modi for not doing enough for families of those who died in a 2019 militant attack. Though fact checkers said the video was created using different parts of an original clip, state police called it an “AI generated, deepfake”.

Using internet address tracking, state police arrested a man named Shyam Gupta on 2 May who had shared the fake video post on X a day earlier, receiving over 3,000 views and 11 likes.

The police have accused Gupta of forgery and promoting enmity under Indian law provisions that can carry a jail term of up to seven years if convicted.

In April, a Facebook user shared a deepfake of actor Ranveer Singh criticising the prime minister

The video features the Congress party symbol with the text: ‘Vote For Nyay, Vote For Congress’.

The video falsely claimed that the actor had endorsed the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.

April also saw social media users share a deepfake video of Bollywood actor Aamir Khan.

The fake clip showed the actor purportedly talking about two types of ‘guarantees’ given to the citizens - ‘good and bad’ – thus claiming that he had endorsed the Congress.

How bad will things get when it comes to deepfakes?

Only time will tell.

With inputs from agencies