Special digital series

well as on social media. Opposition parties are at a financial disadvantage here, and they argue, suffer from retaliation that the ruling party does not. “Technology like AI conversation [phone] calls will become very common as more vendors start making them available to political parties,” says Vishnoi. “If you already have a distribution network created, it becomes very easy” to dominate the field. “The BJP has a strong and structured distribution network,” as do some other dominant regional parties, he adds. Vishnoi cites Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its rival, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, as organisations that have garnered an early lead.

But opposition parties continue to remain wary of the reach and result of their messaging in the face of

This election season, misinformation has a new face. While the 2019 elections were no stranger to hate speech and disinformation campaigns, the technology that enables this ecosystem has revolutionised at warp speed. In our ongoing digital series, we at

decode how the nature of electionrelated misinformation online has evolved, from social media bots to deepfakes. The articles will include interviews with legal experts and activists who will throw more light on the following topics:

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What regulations did and didn’t work in the pregenerative AI era, circa 2019

How algorithmic and social media design changes in the last five years have fuelled the misinformation landscape

Why social media platforms such as X, Meta and YouTube are struggling to contain fake news and propaganda

The emerging market and technology of deepfake makers and their political ‘content’ What tech companies are doing to combat AIgenerated misinformation What effect AI can have on the global electoral landscape

The series will be a handy toolkit for the Indian voter; a guide that attempts to make sense of the synthetic chaos that undermines trust and truth in a democracy. Scan the QR code to know more. widespread misinformation and fake news. “I can share a list of YouTube channels that are only peddling fake news day in and day out and that [are] retweeted by members of a certain political party,” says Jasmine Shah, an Aam Aadmi Party appointee chairing the Delhi government’s Dialogue and Development Commission. “But obviously no action” is taken against these. He compares this to when Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal got slapped with a defamation notice in 2019 after he retweeted a video by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee about the BJP’s IT cell. (Shah spoke in February, a month before Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate.)

In other words, the playing field is uneven if a party decides to play dirty. Vishnoi says it would be ideal if all political organisations came together to declare a common list of principles on AI use, such as labelling of synthetic content and avoiding depictions of opponents.

Before things get there, though, parties appear poised to see what this technology can or cannot do in furthering their ultimate objective: winning the election. “Whatever tools are coming, we will experiment,” says Theepura. Whether or not they have an impact, the AI techniques deployed this election season may well show us a glimpse of what digital campaigning will look like in the coming years.

Anyone with a laptop now can make this stuff [deepfakes]. You don’t need to go to a specialised agency, or even to somebody who knows code

KAREN REBELO