The Election Commission on Friday directed all national and regional political parties not to publish or transmit AI-generated content depicting a person without [his or her] consent, saying it “is a deep threat and challenge because of its ability to masquerade as the truth and unwittingly trap political stakeholders into incorrect conclusions”.
“It has been brought to the notice of the ECI that the misuse of hyper-realistic synthetically generated information, including depicting political leaders making electorally sensitive statements, is contaminating the level-playing field in the electoral arena, disrupting fair and equal conditions for all political participants, which is a sine qua non for preserving the integrity of the political campaigning during elections,” the EC wrote to presidents of national and regional parties.
The EC’s advisory comes at a time when both the ruling NDA and the opposition Mahagathbandan have used AI-generated content to target each other’s leaders in the ongoing Bihar election campaign.
Reiterating its earlier advisories issued in May 2024 and January this year, the EC asked the parties to ensure that all AI-generated content is labelled as such. In the case of videos or images, 10% of the visible display area should carry the label “AI-generated” or “digitally enhanced” or “synthetic content”, it said. In the case of audio, the initial 10% of the duration of the recording should have the disclaimer.
In addition to the existing instructions, the new advisory says: “No content shall be published or forwarded which is unlawful and misrepresents the identity, appearance, or voice of any person without his consent in a manner reasonably likely to mislead or deceive the electorate.”
The 2024 advisory included the directions to label AI-generated content and remove such media within three hours of it being brought to notice, both of which have been reiterated again.
The new advisory said all such content should prominently disclose the name of the entity responsible for its generation and parties should maintain records of all AI-generated campaign materials in case sought by the EC for verification.
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The advisory would apply during the ongoing Bihar Assembly elections and by-polls, and would continue to apply for all future elections.
The EC reminded the parties to comply with the Information Technology Rules, 2021, in order to ensure a “fair and transparent electoral process”.
