The Election Department, in association with the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management and Pondicherry University, organised a conference on ‘Tackling Misinformation and Disinformation in Elections’.

A release from the Department on Wednesday said the conference was held to deliberate on the growing challenges posed by misinformation in electoral process and for exploring collaborative strategies to safeguard electoral integrity.

Participating in the conference, Vice-Chancellor of the University P. Prakash Babu said false information spreads much faster than the truth. The advent of Artificial Intelligence has further accelerated dissemination of false information, he said.

He elaborated on the opportunities and challenges of AI in election management and how the technology could be misused to polarize voters. The challenges posed by AI-generated deep-fake videos, synthetic media and other forms of digitally-manipulated content could undermine public trust in democratic institutions, he said.

Urging students to become informed and responsible citizens, the Vice-Chancellor said a digitally-empowered society should become an ethically-empowered society also. “A developed India requires, informed citizens, responsible media, ethical technology, strong democratic institutions and evidence-based public discourse,” he said.

Chief Electoral Officer A.S.P.S Raviprakash said the integrity of elections rest upon two inseparable pillars — the integrity of the ballot and the integrity of the information ecosystem. The participants at the conference, included District Election Officers, Deputy Chief Electoral Officers, Electoral Registration Officers, Assistant Electoral Registration Officers, Deputy Tahsildars, academicians and students.