Bollywood Star Deepfakes Concerns Indian Elections – News Karnataka

In India, two prominent Bollywood actors are criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urging people to vote for the opposition Congress party in the country's ongoing general elections, in fictitious videos that have gone viral on the Internet.

Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh, two Bollywood actors, are shown in two 30-second videos allegedly criticizing Prime Minister Modi for failing to fulfill his campaign promises and neglecting to address important economic issues during his two terms in office.

Both AI-generated videos end with the congressional election symbol and slogan: Vote for Justice, Vote for Congress.

The two videos have been viewed on social media more than half a million times since last week, according to a Reuters study.

Their spread underscores the potential role that such AI-generated content can play in India's mammoth elections that began Friday and continue through June. AI and AI-generated fakes, or deepfakes, are increasingly used in elections elsewhere in the world, including the United States, Pakistan and Indonesia.

Campaigning in India has long focused on door-to-door canvassing and public rallies, but extensive use of WhatsApp and Facebook as campaign tools began in 2019. This year's general elections, in which Modi is expected to get a rare third term, are the first in India. what AI is used.

On April 17, Congress spokesperson Sujata Paul shared actor Singh's video with her 16,000 followers on X. By Saturday afternoon, her post had received 438,000 views, 2,900 shares and 8,700 likes .

Paul spoke with Reuters on the phone and acknowledged that has creativity, that's for sure.

The post disappeared from X on Sunday, shortly after Reuters contacted the head of Congress's social media cell for comment, to which they did not respond.

Both actors said the videos were fake. Facebook, X and at least eight fact-checking sites said they had been altered or manipulated, which Reuters' digital verification unit also confirmed.

Reuters could not determine who created the videos. Khan was alarmed by the fake viral video and Singh's team was looking into the matter, according to a spokesperson for both actors. Singh wrote on X Friday: Beware of deepfakes, my friends.

Modis' office and his Bharatiya Janata Party's IT chief did not respond to requests for comment.

POLICE INVESTIGATION

An average Indian spends more than three hours a day on social media, according to a survey by business school Indian Institute of Management and research organization Esya Center. Nearly 900 million people in India have access to the Internet. There are almost a billion voters in the country.

At least 14 of these videos were still playable on X on Saturday, although some of them were blocked on social networks. Facebook kept one of the two videos Reuters reported to the company, but removed the other.

Facebook said in a statement that it removed the videos for violating its policies. X did not respond to Reuters queries.

The videos triggered a police investigation, with Khan registering a complaint in Mumbai against anonymous people on April 17 for alleged impersonation and cheating for creating the fake video.

Mumbai Police did not respond to our request for comment, but two officers working on the Khan case, who declined to be named, said they had written to Facebook and X to remove the video and the companies had said that it was done.

Officers said they were up until 2 a.m. Friday, refreshing pages to check whether Khan's online videos had been removed. Asked about developments in the case, one of them said: Such technical investigations take time.

AI VIDEO OF DEAD FATHER

In this year's elections, politicians are using AI in other ways.

In south India, Congress leader's spokesperson Vijay Vasanth said his team created a 2-minute audio-video clip using AI that was shared on social media platforms and shows his now deceased but more popular political father, H. Vasanthakumar, seeking votes for him. .

The late politician is seen saying that even though my body has left you all, my soul is still here.

Samata, an AI-generated anchor dressed in a traditional sari and speaking in a style close to regular news channels, criticizes the ruling party in the state of West Bengal in videos posted on YouTube by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM).

The presenter claims in a clip that the party does not care about the environment as many water bodies have disappeared due to unauthorized construction.

A representative of the ruling party refuted the claim, saying the state government had taken steps to prevent any such construction. Requests for comment received no response from the CPM.

In the video, viewed 12,000 times, presenter Samata says: These are questions that we, citizens of this city, need to think about.

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