Safeguard Democracy During Election

The digital age has introduced a new battleground for elections in cyberspace. Safeguarding democracy during elections is paramount. As nations navigate the complexities of modern governance, the specter of data breaches, disinformation campaigns, and AI-generated deepfakes looms large, posing formidable challenges to the sanctity of elections.

As electoral processes increasingly migrate to digital platforms, the need for robust security measures has never been more urgent. Voter registration databases and election management systems are prime targets for hackers. Stolen data could be used to manipulate voter rolls, launch targeted disinformation campaigns, or even disrupt voting processes.

Protecting citizens’ data is always important for any organisation, but should a citizens’ data leak occur in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections, it is unlikely to compromise the integrity of the democratic process.

Social media platforms are the breeding grounds for fake news and propaganda. Malicious actors can use sophisticated techniques, including deepfakes (AI-generated videos that manipulate real people's likenesses), to sow confusion and erode trust in the electoral process.

The biggest cyber concern around elections this year is the potential for groups - both national and international - to influence the electorate with disinformation. This doesn’t require any access to personal data and has shown to be highly effective around the world at impacting public opinion.

These AI-powered videos can create incredibly realistic portrayals of real people saying or doing things they never did. This can be used to damage a candidate's reputation or spread misinformation in a highly believable way.

Deepfakes could cause major disturbances in society. Deepfake is a technology that uses artificial intelligence to doctor videos in such a way that the user can impersonate as anyone and say things that they won’t have done or said in real life.

There is need to develop and deploy tools and platforms that enable users to verify the authenticity of media content, including videos and images, through techniques such as reverse image search and metadata analysis.

Moving forward, Deepfakes are dangerous because they are increasing the credibility and impact of fake news, and may have a greater deception or disinformation power on citizens. Ultimately, this could result in part of the population casting their votes based on incorrect information, and that is precisely where deepfakes can threaten the integrity of the elections.