Bengaluru/Lucknow: As election campaigning in India heats up, doctored videos are taking center stage, with fake clips involving two top aides of Prime Minister Narendra Modi triggering a police investigation and some workers of his rival Congress party. An arrest has been made.
In what has been dubbed India’s first AI election, Modi said last week that fake voices were being used to show leaders allegedly making “statements that we had never even thought of”. , calling it a “conspiracy to create tension in the society”.
Indian police – already investigating the spread of fake videos by Bollywood actors criticizing Modi – are now investigating a doctored online clip that shows federal Home Minister Amit Shah saying that The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party will stop some social guarantees for minorities, a sensitive topic for millions of people. Voter.
Shah hit back at Ax by posting his “original” and edited “fake” speech and alleged – without providing any evidence – that the main opposition Congress was behind the video made to mislead the public. “Instructions have been issued to the police to resolve this issue,” the minister said.
Indian police arrested at least nine people, including six members of Congress’s social media teams, in the states of Assam, Gujarat, Telangana and New Delhi last week for circulating fake videos, according to police statements.
Five Congress workers were released on bail, but the most high-profile arrest by the cyber crime unit of the New Delhi Police came on Friday, when they detained Congress national social media coordinator Arun Reddy for sharing the video. took. New Delhi is one area where the Shah’s ministry directly controls the police. Reddy has been sent to three days custody.
Congress workers started protesting after the arrest and many posted on Facebook using the tag #ReleaseArunReddy. Congress MLA Manickam Tagore said the arrest was an example of “authoritarian abuse of power by the regime”.
Congress social media chief Supriya Shrinet did not respond to messages and emails seeking comment.
false news
India’s elections from April 19 to June 1 will be the world’s largest democratic event. With nearly a billion voters and more than 800 million internet users, combating the spread of misinformation is a high-stakes task. This includes round-the-clock surveillance by police and election officials who often issue orders to take down Facebook and X when investigations begin.
In Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, more than 500 people monitor online content, flagging controversial posts and asking social media companies to remove them if necessary, police chief Prashant Kumar told Reuters on Saturday. Coordinate with.
Another fake video that created a storm last week showed state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath criticizing Modi for not doing enough for the families of those killed in the 2019 terror attack. Although fact checkers said the video was created using different parts of the original clip, state police called it an “AI-generated, deepfake.”
Using Internet address tracking, state police on May 2 arrested a man named Shyam Gupta, who had shared a fake video post on X a day earlier, which received more than 3,000 views and 11 likes.
Police have charged Gupta with forgery and promoting enmity under provisions of Indian law, which carry a jail term of up to seven years if found guilty. Reuters could not reach him as he is currently serving a 14-day detention period.
“This person is not a technical person. Had he been technologically savvy, it would not have been possible to arrest him immediately,” said police officer Kumar.