The BJP used deepfake technology to create fake videos of party president Manoj Tiwari speaking in languages he doesn't know, distributing these across 5,800 WhatsApp groups to reach approximately 15 million voters during Delhi's 2020 Legislative Assembly elections.
On February 7, 2020, a day before Delhi's Legislative Assembly elections, two deepfake videos of BJP President Manoj Tiwari went viral on WhatsApp. While one video showed Tiwari speaking in English, the other depicted him speaking in Haryanvi, a language he doesn't actually know. The videos were created by The Ideaz Factory, a political communications firm partnered with the Delhi BJP IT Cell, using lip-sync deepfake algorithms trained on Tiwari's speeches. A dubbing artist impersonated Tiwari reading the script in Haryanvi, which was then superimposed on the original video. According to BJP Delhi's Neelkant Bakshi, these deepfakes were distributed across 5,800 WhatsApp groups in Delhi and NCR region, reaching approximately 15 million people. The Haryanvi videos specifically targeted the large migrant worker population in Delhi to dissuade them from voting for rival political parties. This marked the debut of deepfakes in Indian election campaigns, with the firm claiming to use the technology for 'positive campaigning.' The videos contained political messaging criticizing the incumbent Delhi government and encouraging voters to support the BJP.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to conduct large-scale disinformation campaigns, malicious surveillance, or targeted and sophisticated automated censorship and propaganda, with the aim of manipulating political processes, public opinion, and behavior.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed