India’s Next Election Season: How Fake News, Influencers and Deepfakes Are Rewriting Campaign Playbooks

In about ten weeks, four states and one Union Territory will head to the polls, ushering in yet another phase of India’s increasingly complex election choreography. If the 2019 general election was widely described as India’s first “WhatsApp election”, and 2024 as its first truly “digital-forward” contest, the 2026 round of Assembly polls promises a hybrid of both — a heady mix of offline mobilisation and hyper-online persuasion. As political actors prepare for this potpourri of jingles, reels, rallies and podcasts, the intersection of media and politics is becoming more consequential — and more contested — than ever.

From WhatsApp to AI: How Election Campaigning Has Evolved

Electioneering in India has never stood still, but the pace of change has accelerated sharply over the last decade. Campaigns are no longer anchored only in public meetings, newspaper ads or television debates. Instead, they now operate across multiple layers — WhatsApp forwards, Instagram reels, YouTube explainers, influencer collaborations and increasingly, AI-powered tools.

While votes are still cast offline, perceptions are shaped online. With over 90 crore internet users by 2025, political messaging can now be amplified at scale with minimal cost and near-instant reach. The result is a crowded information ecosystem where authenticity, manipulation and persuasion often blur into one another.

Fake News: Yellow Journalism in the Algorithm Age

Fake news can best be described as yellow journalism on steroids — sensationalism supercharged by algorithms and stripped of accountability. Although India has no legal definition of fake news, the Australian eSafety Commissioner describes it as fictional news created to advance specific agendas. That description fits much of what circulates during election cycles.

The concern is not marginal. A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that 65 per cent of respondents in India viewed made-up news as a major problem — among the highest levels globally. Studies by the Indian School of Business and CyberPeace suggest that nearly half of all fake news circulating online is political in nature.

Fake news peaks during elections. The National Crime Records Bureau recorded a 70 per cent rise in fake news-related cases in 2019 compared to the previous year. The trend has only intensified as platforms and formats have multiplied.

Where Fake News Thrives: Platforms, Algorithms and Reach

Digital platforms are the primary vectors. Social media networks and messaging apps such as Meta’s Facebook and WhatsApp, as well as X and YouTube, enable rapid, frictionless dissemination of misleading content. Doctored videos, misleading headlines and AI-generated images often travel faster than corrections, aided by algorithms that privilege engagement over accuracy.

Television, with nearly 900 private channels and a reach of around 23 crore households, still matters. But consumption patterns are shifting decisively online. A Reuters Institute Digital News Report shows that seven out of ten Indians now prefer consuming news digitally, with social media playing a central role. YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook dominate news access — even as newspapers continue to enjoy relatively higher credibility.

The Rise of Influencers as Political Intermediaries

One of the most striking shifts has been the growing political relevance of social media influencers. Backed by research teams, production quality and carefully cultivated personal brands, influencers command loyal audiences — especially among Gen Z. Surveys indicate that over 86 per cent of Gen Z users prefer influencers over traditional celebrities.

Political parties have taken note. Senior leaders now routinely appear on influencer-led podcasts and video interviews. Even the Union government has institutionalised this channel, empanelling influencer agencies through MyGov. While this expands outreach, it also raises questions about transparency, disclosure and partisan amplification.

Deepfakes and Synthetic Persuasion: The New Frontier

Perhaps the most destabilising development is the rise of deepfakes — AI-generated or digitally altered audio and video that convincingly mimic real individuals. Ahead of the last Lok Sabha elections, voters encountered videos of deceased political leaders “addressing” meetings and synthetic clips of film stars endorsing or attacking political parties.

The scale is staggering. In the 60 days before voting began in the previous general election, an estimated five crore AI-generated calls were made to voters using synthetically cloned political voices. During the same period, Meta approved multiple AI-generated political ads that reportedly called for violence.

These technologies collapse the boundary between fact and fiction, making verification difficult for ordinary voters and response mechanisms slower than the speed of viral spread.

Regulation Without Teeth: A Democratic Blind Spot?

The constitutional responsibility for conducting free and fair elections rests with the Election Commission of India. Yet, regulatory guardrails around digital campaigning, fake news and deepfakes remain weak and reactive. The absence of clear standards for platform accountability, political advertising transparency and AI-generated content disclosure leaves a widening governance gap.

If recent controversies around electoral roll revisions and enforcement inconsistencies are any indication, institutional responses may struggle to keep pace with technological manipulation.

As India edges closer to what many are already calling the “AI election” of 2029, the coming 2026 contests may well serve as a rehearsal — revealing how resilient India’s democratic processes are in an age where influence can be engineered, voices cloned, and reality itself contested at scale.