Misinformation Spread Via Deepfakes Biggest Threat To Upcoming Polls In India: Tenable

New Delhi: Misinformation and disinformation spread through artificial intelligence (AI)-generated deepfakes and fake content are the biggest threats to the upcoming elections in India," exposure management company Tenable said on Sunday.

According to the company, these threats will be shared across social media and messaging platforms like WhatsApp, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and others.

"The biggest threats to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are misinformation and disinformation as part of influence operations conducted by malicious actors against the electorate," said Satnam Narang, Senior Staff Research Engineer at Tenable, to IANS.

A recent report by Tidal Cyber highlighted that this year, 10 countries will face the highest levels of election cyber interference threats, including India.

Recently, deepfake videos of former US President Bill Clinton and current President Joe Biden were fabricated and circulated to confuse citizens during the upcoming presidential elections.

Experts note that the proliferation of deepfake content surged in late 2017, with over 7,900 videos online. By early 2019, this number nearly doubled to 14,678, and the trend continues to escalate.

"With the increase in generative AI tools and their use growing worldwide, we may see deepfakes, be it in images or video content, impersonating notable candidates seeking to retain their seats or those hoping to unseat incumbents in parliament," Narang added.

The Indian government has recently issued directives to social media platforms such as X and Meta (formerly Facebook), urging them to regulate the proliferation of AI-generated deepfake content.

Additionally, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) has issued an advisory to these platforms to remove AI-generated deepfakes from their platforms.

Tenable suggests that the easiest way to identify a deepfake image is to look for nonsensical text or language that looks almost alien-like in language.