Recently, a manipulated video purporting to show Home Minister Amit Shah saying that reservations for Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, and Other Backward Classes would end went viral. Despite the fact that BOOM’s fact-check revealed that the video was edited with video editing software, other BJP leaders and mainstream media sources misrepresented it as a “deepfake.”
This election season, Indian political parties are utilizing artificial intelligence in a variety of ways. For example, voter outreach and cadre messages are created using AI voice clones of politicians. Political parties are also circumventing social media regulations by targeting their rivals in satirical videos that employ face swapping, voice cloning, and other AI editing techniques. Their official YouTube and Instagram accounts have these videos up.
However, IT cell workers or proxies and diffused actors who support the party and its ideology are disseminating the harmful deepfakes, which are blatantly deceptive. The majority of the misinformation that has been viewed online thus far is still shallow or cheap fakes, with election seasons in India being a peak for misinformation.
Multiple mainstream media outlets such as the Indian Express, Times Now, Republic and DNA, among others dubbed the doctored Amit Shah video, a deepfake. While speaking at a rally in Maharashtra’s Satara, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also referred to this video as being altered using artificial intelligence.
However, upon analysing the video, BOOM found that it has been doctored by splicing different portions of his speech, in order to decontextualise a statement made by Shah on ending reservations for Muslims in Telangana, ahead of the 2023 legislative elections in the state. Our analysis confirms that the video was not a ‘deepfake’ – as in, it was not altered or created using artificial intelligence, or deep learning algorithms.
Last year, while addressing the media at a Diwali Milan organised by BJP at its national headquarters in New Delhi November, Modi highlighted the threats of ‘deepfakes’. As an example, he went on to cite a video he had seen, purportedly of himself dancing garba, and called it a deepfake. BOOM had fact-checked this video, and found out that it was neither a deepfake, nor edited, but showed a real video of a Narendra Modi-lookalike named Vikas Mahante dancing garba at a Diwali event in the UK.
Days before the first phase of elections, a video of Dinesh Lal Yadav, BJP candidate from Azamgarh, went viral, where he could be seen speaking on how Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath have preferred to be childless to stop unemployment. After this video was widely shared by Congress supporters, BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya tweeted out claiming the video was a deepfake.
BOOM analysed the video using deepfake detection tools, and also retrieved the original video file from the reporter who shot it, which confirmed that the video was authentic. Although the sequence of his comments were rearranged in the viral video, it was not a deepfake, nor did it change the meaning of his remarks.
“We should absolutely expect the term ‘deepfakes’ to be misused. Just as terms like ‘misinformation’ or ‘fake news’ were used to dismiss any evidence that a political actor didn’t like,” said Prateek Waghre, Executive Director, Internet Freedom Foundation.
Speaking to BOOM, Waghre highlights two different types of cases of misusing the term ‘deepfakes’. “One could be the lack of awareness in terms of the nuance of the difference between an edited version, a ‘cheapfake’ and a deepfake. The other is the outright dismissing of evidence by calling it a deepfake.”
The Real Political Deepfakes
The use of deepfakes in politics is not new. The first use of such technology in the context of an election was seen on February 7, 2020 – a day before Delhi headed for legislative polls. Several videos appeared showing Bharatiya Janata Party leader Manoj Tiwari criticising the Aam Aadmi Party government and its leader, Arvind Kejriwal, and urging people to vote for the BJP. These videos showed Tiwari speak in English, Hindi and a Hindi dialect from Haryana. However, Vice found that only the Hindi version was originally shot by Tiwari – the English and Hariyanvi versions were actually fabricated using a ‘lip-sync’ deepfake algorithm trained on videos of Tiwari’s speeches.
Neither the Election Commission of India nor the BJP has officially commented on Tiwari’s deepfake videos. More recently, BOOM has fact-checked multiple videos that were made or altered using artificial intelligence, and shared in the context of the ongoing polls. Less than a week before the polls kicked-off, a video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi appeared on social media, where he can be heard announcing his resignation from the party. BOOM found that the video actually showed Gandhi filing his election nomination from Wayanad, Kerala, which was overlaid with AI voice cloning.
Two videos featuring Bollywood actors Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh criticizing the BJP-led government went viral just days before the election. After analyzing both of these videos, BOOM discovered evidence of AI voice cloning being used to alter them.
Between the first and second phases of the elections, a different video surfaced on social media in which Congress leader Kamal Nath is heard endorsing Muslims with land for the construction of a mosque and calling for the reinstatement of Article 370. BOOM discovered that this video had also been manipulated, with an artificial intelligence voice clone taking Nath’s place.
The Election Commission of India is yet to make a statement acknowledging the emergence of such AI-led disinformation in the context of the polls. Even before elections in India deepfakes were peddled during polls in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh earlier this year. How Can We Regulate Deepfakes? Regulation of AI has been a hot topic of debate in India, following a botched advisory attempt by the Minister of State of Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrashekhar, which led to massive confusion and multiple clarifications from the minister. “Whether you choose to use the term ‘deepfake’, whether you look at the broader issue of ‘synthetic media’, there needs to be clarity around the concepts we’re trying to regulate. And today that’s getting muddied by the public discourse around it,” Waghre points out. The novelty of AI tools has left many perplexed at what exactly is being discussed, and the deliberate misuse of the term ‘deepfake’ is expected to make it worse. How then can be rein in on the abuse of such technology?
Referring to the now-revoked advisory by MeitY, Radhika Jhalani, Volunteer Legal Counsel, SFLC.in, highlights the evolving nature of the technology, with “the potential to change every day, and recommends a balanced approach to new laws. “Especially with 2024 being a major election year globally, deepfakes are a cause of concern. Any legislation that is implemented needs to balance misuse of tech with free speech,” Radhika tells BOOM. Waghre believes we should avoid rushing into new regulations, and rather examine existing laws to find the regulatory gaps. “What are the different ways it (deepfake) is being used in a harmful context. And what does the existing laws say about forgery, and identity theft etc? Then you recognise the regulatory gaps, where the laws are currently falling short. Do we need new laws for cover them, do we need to amend the laws, or improve the redressal mechanism,” Waghre adds.
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