Amid rising number of manipulated or deepfake videos taking a centre stage in the Lok Sabha elections 2024, the Election Commission (EC) warned the political  parties against misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based tools to create deep fakes that distort information or propagate misinformation and directed the political parties to remove the video clips and other content “within 3 hours of coming to their notice",  emphasising the need to uphold the integrity of the electoral process.

Recently, a political slugfest erupted over a doctored video of Home Minister Amit Shah and notices were served to 17 persons, including Telangana Chief Minister and Congress leader Revanth Reddy. Arun Reddy, who handled 'Spirit of Congress' X account, was arrested in connection with Amit Shah's doctored video case. Besides, Shah, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Bollywood actors Aamir Khan,  Ajay Devgan, Kajol, Rashmika Mandana and Ranveer Singh posted on certain social media handles were taken down and criminal complaints were filed.

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”.