ECI to hold first meeting with executives of social media firms

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has called a meeting with senior executives of major social media platforms on March 11 at Nirvachan Sadan to address the growing threat of misinformation and AI-generated deepfakes ahead of upcoming assembly elections

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has called a meeting with senior executives of major social media platforms on March 11 at Nirvachan Sadan to address the growing threat of misinformation and AI-generated deepfakes ahead of upcoming assembly elections.

ECI to hold first meeting with executives of social media firms

The meeting comes at a time when the ECI, in coordination with the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM), is working on developing a dedicated technological framework to identify and counter AI-generated misinformation during elections.

Senior ECI officials said discussions will focus on strengthening monitoring of election-related content, improving response time to complaints and enhancing coordination between digital platforms and election authorities during the campaign period. The meeting will be held under the theme of examining the “opportunities and challenges” associated with the use of social media during elections.

Officials indicated that this will be the first time the Commission is holding a direct, structured meeting with major technology companies on election-related content issues. Until now, the ECI has largely addressed such concerns by issuing advisories during the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). During that period, district collectors, who also function as district nodal officers during elections, can issue notices to candidates, political parties or digital platforms and direct the removal of misleading or unlawful content.

As part of developing its own technological tools and coordinating with digital platforms where such content circulates, officials said the Commission is exploring the development of specialised software and operational protocols to detect deepfake videos, synthetic audio and manipulated digital material during elections.

According to officials, the proposed system would analyse digital content to determine whether a video, audio clip or image is original, artificially generated using AI tools or edited in a misleading manner. The software would be designed to flag alterations such as fabricated speeches, digitally altered facial expressions, voice cloning and instances where real footage has been selectively edited or combined with unrelated visuals to change its meaning.

At present, the ECI’s main election management platform, ECINET, does not have any built-in mechanism to authenticate or identify manipulated digital content such as deepfakes or AI-generated media.

The initiative forms part of a broader effort by the Commission to strengthen institutional preparedness for the growing role of artificial intelligence in electoral politics. Officials in the ECI’s IT department said AI tools could be used to manipulate public discourse by creating realistic but false political content, impersonating candidates or presenting genuine statements in misleading contexts.

The proposed detection system is expected to assist election officials in verifying the authenticity of viral content and identifying cases where genuine material has been edited, selectively clipped or combined with unrelated elements to create misinformation.

The initiative is also linked to a broader plan being explored at IIIDEM to build long-term institutional capacity on AI and elections, including research, training programmes and the possible establishment of a global knowledge centre on AI-related electoral risks.

The meeting comes as West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and the Union Territory of Puducherry prepare for assembly elections in the coming months, raising concerns within the Commission about the increasing use of artificial intelligence tools to create misleading political content. Election authorities are particularly wary of deepfake videos, synthetic audio clips and manipulated images that could falsely portray candidates, fabricate statements or create fake endorsements.