All AI, synthetic content should be labelled: ECI to parties

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday advised political parties to prominently label their campaign materials created or enhanced using artificial intelligence (AI) or other synthetic, digital means.

The advisory follows controversies surrounding the use of AI-generated content in the Delhi elections, particularly allegations against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The BJP has filed multiple FIRs against the AAP, accusing the party of using AI-edited content to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah and other senior BJP leaders. The AAP has dismissed the cases as politically motivated.

ECI emphasised the importance of transparency in its advisory.

“Prominent and easily discernible labelling of Al-generated content would ensure responsible and transparent campaigning and informed voters,” the ECI advisory said. It added political parties must label all images, videos, audio, or other materials generated or significantly altered using AI with labels such as “AI-generated”, “digitally enhanced” or “synthetic content”.

ECI asked political parties to issue disclaimers in campaign ads and promotional content when they use synthetic content online and offline.

This advisory follows ECI’s advisory from May 2024 in which the poll body instructed political parties to take down any deepfakes within three hours of being notified and to not use their social media handles to publish deepfake videos and audio or to disseminate any misinformation or synthetically created or modified information that may appear to be true to the recipient. Parties were instructed to identify and warn those responsible for posting deepfakes.

AI-generated content has taken centre stage in the bitterly contested Delhi elections. The AAP’s early campaign included an AI-generated video of Dr BR Ambedkar blessing party chief Arvind Kejriwal.

The BJP, meanwhile, has accused AAP of misusing technology to spread misinformation and mock its leaders.

On January 14, four FIRs were filed against the AAP. One accused the party of sharing an AI-generated photo of the Prime Minister in a room wearing an expensive watch. Another targeted an AI-edited spoof of an old Bollywood movie, featuring Amit Shah’s face on a character and BJP Delhi chief Virender Sachdeva’s face on another. The FIR alleged the content was defamatory and spread misinformation.

It is not just the Delhi elections that have seen potential misuse of AI in political campaigns. One the eve of Maharashtra state elections, BJP posted four synthetically generated voice notes through its official X account, implicating NCP-SP’s Supriya Sule in a crypto fraud. Neither the ECI, Maharashtra CEO’s office or the Maharashtra police had taken any action even though BJP’s posts violated ECI’s May advisory.