Ahead of Assam polls, AI-generated disinformation targeted Muslims, state Congress chief: Study

The Assam Assembly election campaign witnessed “the first industrialised artificial intelligence disinformation operation” in an Indian state election, an advocacy group said in a report on Tuesday.

The organisation, the Foundation Diaspora in Action for Human Rights and Democracy, said that the disinformation campaign was part of a strategy in which Muslims were “simultaneously dehumanised, disenfranchised, displaced and erased from cultural memory”.

The study came two days before the Assam Assembly election on Thursday. The results will be announced on May 4.

The report said that it identified 31 confirmed deepfakes targeting Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi by “fabricating his identity as a Pakistani agent and Muslim sympathiser”.

It added that it found “119 documented breaches” of the model code of conduct, but said that the Election Commission took no action in any of such cases.

Social media platforms also did not take down any such content, nor were any labels applied declaring that the posts were generated by AI.

The report said that the model implemented in Assam – voter roll purges, demographic engineering and AI-generated communal content – was being replicated in other parts of the country, including poll-bound West Bengal.

“Assam is the laboratory; the rest of India is the intended market,” the report said.

In West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has alleged...

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