Defeat dodgy poll deepfakes

DODGY news and deepfakes are proliferating worldwide as more than 40 countries including South Africa, India, the US and UK prepare to hold national elections this year.

In South Africa, media and IT experts have warned people not to believe or share everything they see on social media and messaging platforms. Instead, they’ve called on them to verify information and report anything untoward or suspicious to the authorities.

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has set up a system called Padre (Political Advert Repository) to help voters check whether a political meme or advert is official or a fake.

The project is supported by nonprofit organisation, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), and is a repository for official political party adverts that can be accessed by the public to determine whether or not an advert by a political party is real or fake.

IEC deputy chief electoral officer, Mawethu Mosery, said dodgy news and disinformation was common during an election period, while messages created through artificial intelligence (AI) were also prevalent.

“There’s a lot of it. Part of it is campaign rhetoric where parties are the ones who are the source of incorrect information or information that is misleading. We then also have a few creations that we would never know who created. In today’s terms, people will say it’s AI. “We also have a lot of old experiences that are reposted as if they are being experienced at that point in time and in real time,” he said.

Concerns about what is fact or fiction are so dire that the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024 warned that misinformation and disinformation was “the most severe global risk anticipated over the next two years”, and will be used by various players to deepen societal and political divides. The report says the tools used to disseminate misinformation and disinformation may undermine the legitimacy of newly elected governments and result in unrest ranging from violent protests and hate crimes, to civil confrontation and terrorism.

“Beyond elections, perceptions of reality are likely to also become more polarised, infiltrating the public discourse on issues ranging from public health to social justice. However, as truth is undermined, the risk of domestic propaganda and censorship will also rise in turn. In response to mis- and disinformation, governments could be increasingly empowered to control information based on what they determine to be ‘true’,” the report stated.

Over the past few months South Africans have had a taste of dodgy information, the most recent being a TikTok video of former US president Donald Trump in which he purportedly encourages voters to support ex-president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party.

Mosery says it’s crucial to have a “mechanism” to quickly verify information to ensure you are not creating an uncomfortable environment for voters or misleading them. He said in South Africa those who spread misinformation and disinformation commonly used “voice audio statements” more than deepfakes, which are highly realistic videos or images.

These deepfakes were “not as prevalent as we see in other large democracies like in America. In videos, we see a recreation of past statements but out of context, manipulating the context as if it is a negative context,” said Mosery.

Explaining the Padre platform, Mosery said political parties were encouraged to voluntarily deposit their information on the Padre system so it was accessible to anyone. “We thought parties would be encouraged to deposit their digital material on this platform because it helps with the aspects of misinformation and disinformation.” He said based on what was in the repository, the IEC or MMA could quickly verify or dismiss information.

Many new parties have registered for elections in South Africa, which means more new candidates, and Mosery said they wanted to ensure that voters understood the legislative changes that were made relating to the elections. In addition, they wanted voters to be alert to misinformation and disinformation. “Don’t be a contributor to misinformation. Check the correctness of the information you receive. If in doubt, do not share it because you will be contributing to misinformation.”

MMA director William Bird said unless you get your information from a source that is known to be credible, you should be careful. “I think anything you get on social media, unless it’s from a credible source or where you know it’s definitely from a credible source, you should be very, very sceptical of it. If you see a post that makes you scared, that makes you angry, just go and check it on a range of credible sites – and whatever you do, don’t share that because disinformation loses its power if it doesn’t get shared.”

Apart from Padre, the MMA has another online platform, www.real411. org, to combat digital disinformation. Bird said it was hard to determine the prevalence of disinformation, but based on the number of complaints they receive through 411, it was clear there were a lot of people out to misinform others. “When you start to get evidence of campaigns and you see particular users doing things in networks, then you know that it’s, in many respects, co-ordinated campaigning.”

He said during election time there were standard types of disinformation, like those which attack and undermine the credibility of the IEC. “And they’ll do that by suggesting that they steal votes, or votes are pre-counted, or they’ll invent all sorts of things about the IEC specifically,” Bird said.

Those interested in fact-checking platforms can go to https://padre. org.za and www.mediamonitoringafrica.org.