advertisement
When a video of two women playing with Holi colours inside a Delhi Metro went viral, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation tried to shrug off responsibility by alleging that "deepfake technology may have been used" to create the viral video.
Deepfake videos are synthetic media made with artificial intelligence technology that try to portray something that isn't true.
In this case, however, the video was authentic and was created by a content creator named Preeti Morya. Fact-checkers, including, The Quint's WebQoof team, were able to find enough evidence to prove that the girls did shoot the video inside a Delhi metro.
This wasn't the first instance when a public figure used technology as an excuse to evade accountability. Earlier in March, when the Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP) fielded sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Upendra Singh Rawat from the Barabanki seat, an "objectionable" video of him went viral.
Rawat withdrew his nomination, however, filed a complaint against unknown people for sharing the "doctored" and "fake" video.
Another such controversial story was about Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, also known as PTR, who served as the former finance minister in MK Stalin's government in Tamil Nadu.
In April 2023, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai released two audio clips to claim that PTR was making allegations against Stalin's family members and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leaders while praising the BJP.
Rest of World, a nonprofit publication, shared these two audio clips with the Deepfakes Rapid Response Force for forensic analysis. DRRF is an initiative by Witness, an organisation that uses technology to protect and defend human rights.
The program carried three independent tests on these clips.
The analysts were not able to conclude anything about the first clip.
However, they concluded that the second clip was authentic and not a deepfake.
Similar to the other analysis, the evaluation of the first clip was inconclusive.
The use of technology to dismiss facts and brush aside blame is not new. Politicians and public figures have used it much before AI and deepfake became household terms.
In 2010, when a video of controversial guru Nithyananda Paramahansa and Tamil actress Ranjitha in a compromising position went viral on the internet, he dismissed it by calling it "fake and fabricated".
Another obscene video purportedly showing senior BJP leader Parbatbhai Patel with a woman surfaced on the internet in 2021. Following this, the leader's son claimed that this was "a conspiracy to defame his father and extort money". Patel maintained that the viral video was morphed, and his face was superimposed onto the body of another man in the video.
Waghre explains to The Quint how anything presented in a video or audio format that acts as evidence against a politician is dismissed by them.
Karan Saini, an independent security researcher, explains this to be an information hygiene and media consumption issue.
"When politicians address a deepfake, a lot of experts also look into it to find errors but on the flip side, when there is actual real evidence, how would that video be detected? This becomes a defense response that politicians can put out when evidence on wrongdoings is presented against them," he added.
Election propaganda in India has now changed from door-to-door and street campaigns to AI-generated fake videos. Last year, just before the Telangana elections, thousands of voters received a deepfake video which depicted a sitting minister appealing to them to vote against the present state government.
Call it deceptive or opportunist, generative AI goes unnoticed in the political context. In January this year, late DMK Supremo M Karunanidhi appeared before a live audience on a large projected screen and delivered a speech on the launch of a book.
In 2020, BJP member Manoj Tiwari, went viral on social media ahead of legislative assembly elections in Delhi after he used a deepfake video for campaigning purposes.
More recently, an AI generated audio clip of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's (AIADMK) late leader J Jayalalithaa seeking support to party General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami for the upcoming Lok Sabha election was released by the party.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
Published: undefined