The Election Commission of Pakistan has proposed amendments to the codes of conduct for political parties, candidates, media and election observers to protect elections from the misuse of artificial intelligence. In a draft notification issued on Friday, the commission asked stakeholders for feedback by November 20.
Citing its duty under Article 218(3) of the Constitution to ensure honest and fair elections, the commission said manipulating the electoral process through misleading AI-generated content amounts to a corrupt practice.
Under the draft, parties and candidates would have to clearly disclose all AI-generated campaign material, including deepfake images, audio, video and synthetic voices, and robocalls using cloned voices would have to say so at the outset. Content meant to deceive voters, and false or defamatory deepfakes targeting candidates, party leaders, election officials, the judiciary or the armed forces, would be banned. Parties could not use bots to inflate likes, shares or followers, and would have to keep logs of AI-assisted content for the commission on request.
Print, broadcast and digital outlets, as well as social media influencers, would have to label AI-altered election content. PEMRA, the Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority and the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency would monitor platforms and report to the commission, which could order immediate takedowns or relabelling. Observers would be required to report deepfakes directly to the commission and barred from using AI to fabricate photos, videos or reports.