Vishvas News Analysis: The Rise of Deepfakes and Misinformation Trends in 2024
In 2024, misinformation and deepfakes surged, especially during India’s Lok Sabha and assembly elections. Vishvas News published over 3,200 fact-check reports in 12 languages, debunking viral claims related to political, economic, and social issues. Key trends included AI-generated deepfakes, fake claims about EVM tampering, and misleading political narratives. Notable cases involved fake videos of Amit Shah and Supriya Sule. Globally, misinformation during the Israel-Hamas conflict and violence in Bangladesh spread rapidly. Additionally, deepfake scams in finance, health, and business, targeting figures like Mukesh Ambani and Elon Musk, gained traction. Vishvas News also addressed over 70 fraud-related claims.
- By: Abhishek Parashar
- Published: Dec 31, 2024 at 01:15 PM
New Delhi (Vishvas News). In 2024, India experienced a pivotal year, with both the Lok Sabha and assembly elections held across the country. The Lok Sabha elections unfolded in seven distinct phases, with the results revealed on June 4, 2024.
Following this, assembly elections took place in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, and Haryana. As the year drew to a close, Jharkhand and Maharashtra conducted their assembly elections, with the final results announced on November 23, 2024.
The year witnessed a surge in the spread of misinformation, especially surrounding election-related narratives. A notable concern, highlighted in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report of 2024, was the growing threat of misinformation, particularly in large democracies like India. The report warned that misinformation could erode the legitimacy of newly elected governments, posing a significant risk to democratic processes.
The Global Risk Report identified five key risk categories—economic, environmental, geopolitical, social, and technological—that are shaping global concerns in the short and long term. Among these, extreme weather events, AI-generated misinformation, social and political polarisation, the cost of living crisis, and cyberattacks were highlighted as the most pressing issues.
The report emphasised that misinformation and disinformation posed the most immediate danger in the short term (two years) and were likely to remain a significant threat in the long term (ten years). The far-reaching impact of these risks underscores the need for global vigilance, especially in light of their potential to destabilize societies in the coming decade.
Misinformation trends for 2024
In 2024, misinformation trends in domestic political matters were largely shaped by elections, while economic matters were dominated by scam-related narratives. Additionally, there was a noticeable surge in the cases of AI-based misinformation and disinformation.
In 2024, Vishvas News conducted 3,242 fact checks in 12 languages including Hindi and English.
Domestic Trends
In 2024, Vishvas News published 1,453 reports investigating political misinformation, including Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
In the political category, around 250 fact-check reports focused on verifying viral claims related to the Lok Sabha and assembly elections. Analysing the trends, most of these claims were circulated as text, images, and videos.
A notable case was a fake video of Amit Shah, claiming he would end SC, ST, and OBC reservations. The video was doctored; Shah’s actual statement in 2023 called for the removal of unconstitutional Muslim reservations, not reservations for these groups. This case highlights the growing threat of misinformation, including deepfakes, in political discourse.
A big case of deepfake during the Maharashtra elections was the fake audio tape of Supriya Sule, through which she was accused of managing the funding of the Maharashtra elections with the help of alleged Bitcoin fraud. Vishvas News, in its investigation, found all four viral tapes in this series to be AI-created, the fact check report of which can be seen here.
Another major claim after the Maharashtra election results was that there were more votes counted than cast, which was debunked in our investigation. Simultaneously, false claims about EVM tampering were circulated, which were actually related to the routine duties of election officials.
During the same assembly elections, another claim about voting through a ‘challenge vote’ went viral on social media, suggesting that a person could vote without a voter ID card. Vishvas News investigated and found this claim to be false. The fact-check report can be read here.
Apart from this, claims of election misinformation were also shared targeting big leaders like Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi, Uddhav Thackeray, Hemant Soren, Devendra Fadnavis, Eknath Shinde, Yogi Adityanath, Asaduddin Owaisi, and Priyanka Gandhi.
Claims related to vote rigging and EVM tampering primarily surfaced during and after the Maharashtra elections.
International trends
In the World category, Vishvas News published 183 fact-check reports in 2024, addressing many misleading and fake claims that linked violence against minorities in Bangladesh to political upheaval and the resulting instability.
Fake claims alleging the presence of the Indian Army in Bangladesh at the onset of the violence, as well as the Indian High Commissioner attending a core meeting with exiled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, also went viral. Vishvas News investigated and debunked these claims, with fact-check reports available here.
Additionally, many fake and misleading claims were shared regarding the violence against minorities in Bangladesh.
AI-created multimedia was also used during the Bangladesh crisis, with two key claims standing out. The first claim involved AI-generated images of the protests in Bangladesh, which were used to exaggerate their supposed ‘widespread’ and ‘popularity’.
The second case involved claims that the Indian national flag was insulted in Bangladesh. While news reports confirmed some incidents of such acts, certain images shared in this context were found to be AI-generated, not real.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a terrorist attack on Israel, followed by continued Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip. In 2024, social media was flooded with related claims. Fact-check reports debunking viral claims regarding the Israel-Hamas war can be found here.
During this conflict, fake narratives were created using AI-generated multimedia.
Business and Finance
In 2024, Vishvas News investigated around 40 business and finance-related claims, including important trends related to income tax and tax filing, new series of notes issued after demonetisation, and misleading claims related to GST.
It was claimed on social media that senior citizens would receive full income tax exemption, which turned out to be fake in our investigation.
Another claim involving the notes of the Mahatma Gandhi series, particularly the star symbol notes, issued after demonetisation, is fake, as revealed in our investigation.
Apart from this, deepfake videos of Mukesh Ambani and Anant Ambani, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk promoting investment platforms were also trending, whose fact check reports can be read here.
This year, an altered video of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also went viral, where she was heard criticising GST by calling it a ‘private information tax’. Our investigation found this claim to be fake and the fact-check reports can be seen here.
Deepfakes
Like last year, AI-created misinformation remained a major trend this year. However, the scope of deepfake expanded beyond just political propaganda, impacting the economic, social, and entertainment sectors as well.
Three main trends related to AI were seen.
1. Deepfake audio or video for political disinformation
During the elections, deepfake videos of politicians were primarily circulated, with one of the major cases being the deepfake multimedia of Supriya Sule during the Maharashtra elections.
2. Financial misinformation
This category mainly involved promoting investment platforms assuring extraordinary returns, using synthetic audio voices of top corporate leaders, such as Mukesh Ambani, Anant Ambani, Sundar Pichai, and Elon Musk.
3. Health misinformation
This category featured synthetic audio of celebrities or expert doctors in the relevant field, promoting treatments for diabetes or other diseases.
One major viral claim in this category was related to a purported audio of Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal, which allegedly surfaced after she was beaten at the CM House. The claim suggested that the audio was a conversation between Swati and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, where Swati was heard saying that she was beaten at the behest of Sunita Kejriwal. Vishvas News investigated this claim and found the audio to be fake, created using AI tools.
Scam
In this category, Vishvas News published 73 fact-check articles during 2024, primarily focused on viral claims intended for financial fraud through fake or phishing links or to gather data through clickbait headlines.
You can read the fact-check reports related to these viral claims in the Scam category of Vishvas News.
Like many other countries, India does not have a specific law or regulation to combat fake news. However, various sections of the IPC (now the Indian Justice Code/BNS) and the IT Act are used to take legal action against fake news and misinformation.
Sections 67, 69 and 79 of the IT Act, 2000 along with sections of the BNS (formerly IPC), Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 (which has not been implemented yet), have ensured several provisions to address the misuse of data on online platforms.
According to the 2022 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), cases related to the spreading of false news, rumours, or misinformation were registered under Section 505 of the IPC. The ’Crime in India’ report revealed that 858 cases were filed for spreading fake news in 2022, a decrease compared to the previous two years. In 2020, there were 1527 such cases, while 882 cases were registered in 2021.
In terms of states, the highest number of fake news cases were registered in Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. Telangana saw 264 cases, Uttar Pradesh recorded 147 cases, and Madhya Pradesh had 84 cases.
Compared to the previous year, Telangana saw an increase from 218 cases to 264, Uttar Pradesh from 82 to 147, and Madhya Pradesh from 129 to 84. Tamil Nadu recorded 137 cases in 2024, and UP from 77 cases in 2022.
You can read the analysis report of the misinformation trends from 2023 here. In 2023, the global trend was influenced by the Israel-Hamas conflict, while at the national level, the assembly elections in five states, deepfake incidents, the Cricket World Cup, and regional violence in Manipur and Nuh impacted social media trends. In 2023, Vishvas News published over 3,000 fact-check reports in 12 languages, including Hindi and English.
Conclusion: In 2024, misinformation and deepfakes surged, especially during India’s Lok Sabha and assembly elections. Vishvas News published over 3,200 fact-check reports in 12 languages, debunking viral claims related to political, economic, and social issues. Key trends included AI-generated deepfakes, fake claims about EVM tampering, and misleading political narratives. Notable cases involved fake videos of Amit Shah and Supriya Sule. Globally, misinformation during the Israel-Hamas conflict and violence in Bangladesh spread rapidly. Additionally, deepfake scams in finance, health, and business, targeting figures like Mukesh Ambani and Elon Musk, gained traction. Vishvas News also addressed over 70 fraud-related claims.
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