Election monitors and observers are emphasising on the need for the Election Commission (EC) to take urgent action to ensure that the negative effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated content are minimised in the upcoming election cycle, while The Sunday Morning learns that the EC plans to discuss the matter with big tech companies too.
As Sri Lanka enters its first election cycle after the ‘Aragalaya’ and the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, it is poised to be one of the most crucial in recent history, with the Presidential Elections scheduled for between September and October this year and the General Elections to be held before August 2025.
Given its importance, election monitors are raising concerns about the role that AI will play, especially given Sri Lanka’s history where social media and new media have affected key political events in the country.
Potential impact
Hashtag Generation Head of Programmes Darshatha Gamage told The Sunday Morning that although they had not yet started election-focused operations, they were observing an increase in political discourse on social media.
“Currently we are seeing AI being used for commercial advertising, which is not harmful per se. We are also seeing the potential use of AI as a tool for gender-based harassment, especially targeting women and girls, to modify images and for other non-consensual actions. We have observed this happening to female politicians too like [Samagi Jana Balawegeya MP] Hirunika Premachandra (one or two incidents) and other political figures such as [actress] Damitha Abeyrathne,” said Gamage, adding that once campaigning began, they were likely to see a lot of generative AI and deep fakes.
Institute for Democratic Reforms and Electoral Studies (IRES) Executive Director (ED) Manjula Gajanayake said that they predicted that many political parties would use AI, which would result in a huge impact on the elections.
“If we can use AI in a responsible way, we can make a huge impact on the electoral process of Sri Lanka,” Gajanayake told The Sunday Morning, however warning of potential negative uses such as employing AI to generate a fake video of the EC Chairman to spread false messaging right before voting day.
Gamage also said that while AI could be used in non-problematic ways – for example, for creative campaigning – there could also be deep fakes which spread disinformation that go viral overnight. “These could focus on the candidates and political parties as well as the electoral process.”
One of the most prominent recent examples of the use of AI in campaigning comes from neighbouring Pakistan, where former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, despite being barred from holding in-person rallies or promoting Khan’s image via TV, managed to produce four video clips of Khan using AI (although he was jailed) and successfully hold social media ‘rallies’ to secure a win in the election in February.
As India too heads into an election this month, The New York Times reported on Thursday (18) that an AI-generated avatar of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been spread through WhatsApp, in which he addresses a series of voters by name.
“We haven’t seen anything similar to Imran Khan’s video yet, but we still haven’t got into the main election cycle,” said Gamage.
Impacting political discourse
However, Sri Lanka is no stranger to the use of social media, both organically and by paid means, to change and manipulate political discourse around the country. For instance, in 2018 Channel 4 News reported on Cambridge Analytica, an analytics firm closely linked to Facebook which allegedly used the latter to influence American voters, with the investigation revealing Cambridge Analytica Head Alexander Nix speaking to someone who wished to acquire their services for work in Sri Lanka too.
In the same year, then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the United National Party (UNP) had also been approached by the company in 2015 but claimed the UNP had not accepted the offer.
Meanwhile, People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) Executive Director Rohana Hettiarachchi pointed to an incident on the voting day of the 2010 Presidential Elections where a news report had been circulated through mainstream media claiming that candidate Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka would not be able to hold the position of president even if he won as he was not a registered voter.
“This was only half true as the law states that you only have to be eligible to be a registered voter to be president. Although General Fonseka wasn’t registered, that wouldn’t have prevented him from being president. Similar news could be created through AI and spread through new media to impact the upcoming elections too.”
Urgent steps
IRES ED Gajanayake urged the EC to take swift action, saying that he believed the latter was “not ready to face the challenge” posed by AI. “If other stakeholders know the commission is not ready and not willing to take action, then they can manipulate the election easily,” he warned.
While both Hashtag and IRES noted that the EC was engaged in discussions with stakeholders about the matter, they urged swift action, noting the weaknesses that lay with the commission.
“The EC is engaged in some positive action, such as creating a network for complaints. However, things are moving slowly. Whatever mechanisms it comes up with, it needs equipment and human resources. It is pathetic that Government institutions and ministries are not outsourcing for human resources. I don’t think there are AI experts within the EC, so it should have a plan to at least outsource this expertise,” said Gajanayake.
He also highlighted that even as non-State actors, they too were lacking the resources and technology to properly identify AI-generated or manipulated content.
“Election observers are also still trying to acquire this facility but we also don’t have much expertise in these fields or funds to be ready for it. We have no recognised tools to verify or fact check AI content, so it is very difficult to debunk or verify.
“Even if we do debunk, it might be too late by then and the debunked information may not get as much attention as the original post, by which time the damage would already be done. If such fake content is spread the night before the voting day, it can have a very big impact,” said Gamage.
Need for regulations and awareness
The current election law provides for the behaviour of mainstream media during election periods. However, it does not cover digital media, said Elections Researcher and Analyst Attorney-At-Law (AAL) D.M. Dissanayake.
“There are only a few more months left for the Presidential Elections and it takes some time in Parliament to create new laws. The other worrying aspect is the way the Parliament is behaving these days, especially the party in power, so there are legitimate concerns about whether new laws could impact our freedom of expression – like what happened with the Online Safety Act,” said Dissanayake.
Instead, Dissanayake called for the EC to be proactive and directly handle the matter by introducing regulations and circulars to ensure that fairness, transparency, and accountability were ensured in the upcoming elections.
He further said that the EC should update the Code of Conduct issued to candidates to include AI and social media use alongside necessary legal action that the commission would take in case of breach of the Code of Conduct. “The EC should also maintain good and direct connections with journalists to help them verify information as fast as possible.”
EC and tech giants
Election observers also recommended that the EC reach an understanding with tech giants such as Meta to regulate the upcoming elections.
“The EC has in previous election cycles had partnerships with Facebook, where if the EC identified election law violations, the platform took necessary measures. It also had an understanding during the silence period to disallow boosting of election campaigning, but the success of that remains a question.
“It will be important for the current commission to form certain partnerships with platforms like Meta, Google, TikTok, Telegram, etc., and encourage them to work with local and international partners and observer bodies,” said Gamage.
Gajanayake too said that while Meta had not been willing to engage with the EC for the Local Government Elections, interest should be there for a national election and urged the commission to take the necessary steps to facilitate this process. “The EC should have a will and a plan – we are yet to see a plan. It has to do more homework, sooner.”
EC Chairman R.M.A.L. Rathnayake told The Sunday Morning that the commission hoped to have an understanding with the big tech companies closer to the election but said that they had not started discussions yet.
“We are formulating programmes to understand how we can control both AI and social media. We are trying our best to get it done before the next election – we may not be able to cover everything, but we are trying to do what we can.”