Tech Platforms That Farm Rage With AI Fakes Cannot Claim Neutrality

Updated: Jul 25, 2026 17:27 pm IST Published On Jul 25, 2026 17:26 pm IST Last Updated On Jul 25, 2026 17:27 pm IST

Published On Jul 25, 2026 17:26 pm IST

Last Updated On Jul 25, 2026 17:27 pm IST

In the space of a few days, a senior minister appeared to say something inflammatory he never said. A prime minister appeared to make comments he never made. A protest leader appeared to call off a movement he never called off. All three videos were fake. All three were generated by AI, and all three spread on social media before anyone could stop them. That is the real story of the recent Gen Z-led protests: not just what people were angry about, but how easily that anger could be weaponised and set loose at scale.

AI misinformation is a live governance problem, and India needs a serious national conversation on regulating such synthetic content. Not to restrict innovation, but to ensure AI does not supercharge misinformation and hate speech capable of disturbing public order in a country as socially, culturally, and linguistically diverse as India.

Traditional misinformation required real effort to scale. AI collapses that cost, as anyone can now produce a realistic fake video, voice clip or image in minutes, publish it instantly, and watch algorithms push it to hundreds of millions before any fact-checker or law-enforcement agency notices. It is this combination of cheap creation, instant publication and algorithmic virality that makes generative AI different in kind, not degree. By the time authorities identify one fake, several variants may already be circulating across languages and regions, which is why this can no longer be treated as a content-moderation problem alone.

Once harmful AI content reaches millions, it becomes a law-and-order challenge, and sometimes it is already too late. India's law-enforcement machinery is structurally outmatched here: cybercrime units are stretched thin across a........

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