CEC Rajiv Kumar flags threat of 'deep fake narratives' to polls

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Monday argued that social media companies should proactively detect fake narratives using artificial intelligence, instead of waiting for such content to be reported, particularly during polls.

Kumar said that the disturbing trend of deep fake narratives had become a common feature in elections worldwide, where disruptive elements would attempt to alter public perception and mislead users by repetitively presenting deep fakes as “fact” during elections.

The CEC was speaking after inaugurating an international conference on “Use of Technology and Elections Integrity”, which saw the 43 representatives of the election management bodies of the 17 nations assembling in New Delhi.

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Kumar stressed that social media intermediaries through their algorithm power and Artificial Intelligence had the capability to detect deep fakes proactively especially in jurisdictions like India, where electoral cycles were definite and well-announced.

The CEC expressed concerns over level-playing fields not being in-built in platform search results to at least show officially verified versions with the same prominence as fake content. He cited the example of the enforcement agencies putting the onus on social media platforms to detect deep fakes proactively. He said that it was difficult to imagine if the enforcement agencies said that they would not act unless a crime is reported to them; intelligence prevention was not their responsibility, according to a press release issued by the EC.

Kumar wondered who should be primarily responsible to identify "blatant and system detectable" fake content and prevent them from getting uploaded and circulated on social media platforms.

The EC hosted the conference as part of the programmes being held around the world as follow up to the Summit for Democracy hosted by US President Joe Biden in December 2021.

The CEC referred to a "trend" to discredit the electronic voting machine (EVM) technology. A fake news report on EVM hacking attributed to one of his predecessors, T S Krishnamurthy kept getting circulated over social media before every election. Krishnamurthy had gone on record recently to deny the news attributed to him, added Kumar.