A two day international conference on the theme ‘Use of Technology & Elections Integrity’ was hosted by the Election Commission of India in New Delhi.
Key points
- The conference which was the second in a series of three conferences to be organized by Election Commission of India was hosted at New Delhi under Cohort on Election Integrity led by ECI.
- The Cohort on ‘Elections Integrity was established under the Summit for Democracy – Year of Action Programme, lunched by the US.
- On December 9-10, 2021, the US President Biden held the first of two Summits for Democracy, which brought together leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector in our shared effort to set forth an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal and to tackle the greatest threats faced by democracies today through collective action.
Key concerns raised
- A disturbing trend of deep fake narratives have become a common feature in elections worldwide, where disruptive elements attempt to alter public perception and mislead the user by repetitively presenting the deep fakes as “fact”.
- Social media intermediaries through their algorithm power and AI, have the capability to detect the deep fakes proactively, especially in jurisdictions like India, where electoral cycles are definite and well announced.
- Concerns were raised over level playing field not inbuilt in platforms search results to at least show officially verified versions with the same prominence as fake content.
India’s initiatives
- The success of any Election Management Bodies (EMB) depends on deploying appropriate technology in three broad verticals – ease of registration for voters, facilitating political parties & candidates and thirdly for election management & logistics/security.
- ECI has taken various steps; like cVigil, Saksham App for PwDs and use of battery operated non-networked EVMs in a million plus polling stations which has empowered voters and has ensured prompt and credible electoral outcomes election after election.
