Deepfakes, cloned voices, and digital media literacy: AI’s role in the misinformation crisis in India

The document analyzes the impact of generative AI on the spread of misinformation in India, highlighting a 550% increase in deepfake-related cybercrimes since 2019. It details the weaponization of AI for political campaigns and gendered disinformation, while evaluating the effectiveness of digital media literacy programs and AI detection tools in building community resilience.

• Deepfake-related cybercrimes in India have seen a massive surge, increasing by 550% since 2019. Common crimes include "digital arrest", deepfake e-KYC, and the use of celebrity deepfakes to promote fake trading and investment apps.
• Rural populations in India are particularly vulnerable to AI-generated misinformation due to a lack of digital literacy, despite more than half of the country's internet users residing in rural areas.
• AI is being weaponized for gendered and ideological disinformation in India, including the creation of AI-generated soft porn images of Muslim women with Hindu men and imagery depicting Muslim men as stone pelters or paedophiles.
• AI-generated content has been integrated into Indian political campaigns, with examples including a 2020 deepfake of BJP leader Manoj Tiwari and 2024 deepfakes of late DMK leader M. Karunanidhi and actors Ranveer Singh and Amir Khan.
• India lacks a dedicated fake news law and instead relies on the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023, the Information Technology Act 2000, and the IT Rules 2021 to penalize the creation and sharing of misinformation.
• Fact-checking initiatives in India are adapting to AI by converting long articles into short-form multimedia content and forming coalitions like the SHAKTI coalition and the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA).
• Community-centric digital literacy programs, such as those by the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) and the Kerala government's "Satyameva Jayate" program, are identified as critical for building resilience against AI misinformation.
• Various AI detection tools are being used to verify content, including Hiya, Deepfake-o-Meter, and Hive Moderation, while the company Factly has developed its own tools named 'Sach' and 'Tagore AI'.

APA

Pothuru, V. K. (2025). Deepfakes, cloned voices, and digital media literacy: AI’s role in the misinformation crisis in India. World Association for Christian Communication. https://waccglobal.org/deepfakes-cloned-voices-and-digital-media-literacy-ais-role-in-the-misinformation-crisis-in-india/

Chicago

Pothuru, Vamsi Krishna. Deepfakes, cloned voices, and digital media literacy: AI’s role in the misinformation crisis in India. World Association for Christian Communication, 2025. https://waccglobal.org/deepfakes-cloned-voices-and-digital-media-literacy-ais-role-in-the-misinformation-crisis-in-india/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Pothuru |first1=Vamsi Krishna |title=Deepfakes, cloned voices, and digital media literacy: AI’s role in the misinformation crisis in India |publisher=World Association for Christian Communication |date=13 August 2025 |url=https://waccglobal.org/deepfakes-cloned-voices-and-digital-media-literacy-ais-role-in-the-misinformation-crisis-in-india/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{pothuru2025deepfakes, author = {Pothuru, Vamsi Krishna}, title = {{Deepfakes, cloned voices, and digital media literacy: AI’s role in the misinformation crisis in India}}, institution = {World Association for Christian Communication}, year = {2025}, month = aug, url = {https://waccglobal.org/deepfakes-cloned-voices-and-digital-media-literacy-ais-role-in-the-misinformation-crisis-in-india/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }