Election Commission warns political parties against misuse of AI tools in campaigning

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Monday warned political parties against misuse of AI-based tools for creating deep fakes , distorting information during election campaigning . EC said that Parties must remove such content within 3 hours, uphold electoral integrity, and refrain from circulating misinformation or derogatory content, as per existing laws and EC directives.

The order stated, "Taking cognizance of the certain violations of MCC and the extant legal provisions
by Political Parties /their representatives while using social media for election campaigning, the Commission today has issued directions to political parties for responsible and ethical use of social media in election campaigning to ensure level playing field among all stakeholders. The Commission has also warned the parties against misuse of AI based tools to create deep fakes that distort information or propagate misinformation, emphasising the need to uphold the integrity of the electoral process. The ECI has brought to the notice of political parties the existing legal provisions that govern the regulatory framework against the use of misinformation and impersonation using deep fakes. "

Election Commission directed the political parties to remove any such content within 3 hours of bringing them to their notice and said, "The parties have been directed to promptly remove any such content within three hours of bringing it to their notice, warn the person responsible in their party, reporting unlawful information and fake user accounts to respective platforms, and escalate persistent issues to the Grievance Appellate Committee under Rule 3A of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021."

Additionally, EC wrote to political parties detailing the provisions of laws against misuse of such tools and said, "In view of the existing legal provisions, amongst other directions, the parties have been specifically directed to refrain from publishing and circulating deep fake audios/videos, disseminate any misinformation or information which is patently false, untrue or misleading in nature, to refrain from posting derogatory content towards women, to abstain from using children in campaigns, to avoid depicting violence or harm to animals."