The recent incident of an individual sending millions of ‘unsolicited SMS’ has raised questions about how secure the personal information of Nepali citizens is. The fact that 10 million SMSes were sent asking people to come to Baluwatar for anti-federalist and royalist protests, of which 5 million were ‘delivered’, shows how easy it is to misuse information technology and data in our country.

Ahead of the House of Representatives elections to be held in 47 days, incidents of misinformation and AI misuse have made political parties suspicious. In a discussion organized by the Election Commission on Friday, leaders of major parties raised questions about the misuse of technology and the risk of data breaches. 

NCP leader Barshaman Pun expressed fear over the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI). He questioned whether the state has the ability to stop fake audio or video being made overnight to assassinate the character of a candidate. He demanded that the commission clarify the expertise and resources to regulate the confusion and hatred spread through technology.

‘This time we are in the era of AI, if someone makes a fake video or audio saying that a candidate supports a candidate, or if someone’s character is assassinated or a fake document is presented, does the commission have the ability to fact-check it?’ Pun asked. He fears that advanced information technology could pose a risk in the context of Nepal, which is economically and socially shifting to the left, noting that technology is being misused during elections even in developed countries including the US. 

CPN-UML Secretary Rajan Bhattarai also questioned what the Election Commission's monitoring system is. He said that an effective regulatory system is necessary for the implementation of the election code of conduct. Nepali Congress leader and head of the publicity department, Min Bahadur Bishwakarma, said that the Commission should have the capacity to control and regulate the misuse of information technology. Bhattarai said that while money and power were misused earlier, technology is now being misused the most. 

'Earlier there was the era of muscles, now the era of money has come,' he said, 'now information technology is being misused the most. Rather than questioning whether the Election Commission has the capacity to control, regulate and manage this misuse, I would like to say that it should have the capacity.' 

RPP Chief Secretary Kedar Bahadur Adhikari is of the opinion that the Commission needs a strong team to manage the challenge of fake IDs caused by the use of AI. He presented the misuse of technology and the media's commentary as the main challenge. 'The biggest challenge at present is the media sector, it is important how the Commission views and monitors the commentary made by the media with affection for a particular person or party,' he said, 'Both good and bad things may come about candidates through the use of AI or fake IDs, the Commission should form a strong information technology team to manage such challenges.' 

Addressing the queries raised by party representatives about the misuse of information technology and the challenges of AI, Election Commissioner Sagun Shumsher Jabra said that a new social media monitoring tool received with foreign assistance will be used. 'This tool immediately informs about any information flow that is misusing social media to spread misleading rumors,' he said, 'We will regulate it in accordance with the legal process, we will ask for clarification.'

Commissioner Jabra said that the Commission will use the expertise and equipment of the Nepal Army. The commission has also said that it is signing agreements with Meta and TikTok to prevent abuse and control inappropriate propaganda. “Do not think that the commission does not know what is posted on social media or that it can be misused, the platforms will inform us,” he assured.

Along with the commission, the government is also going to deploy a cyber crime control team of the Nepal Police to control cyber crime and misuse of social media during the election. Cyber ​​police are going to be mobilized to control untrue information, rumors and misleading propaganda, cyber crime on social media, hacking, fake accounts and digital fraud and to ensure voter privacy, digital security and a peaceful election process, said Anand Kafle, spokesperson for the Ministry of Home Affairs. “Election cyber police personnel will be deployed from the Cyber ​​Bureau at the Valley Police Office to coordinate with the Central Command Post, Election Commission and Central Election Cell,” he said.

Experts say that the commission still has a lot of work to do to overcome the challenges of data security and AI. Deepfakes, DDoS, Disinformation and Deception, or the 'Four Ds', are the main challenges of the commission, said Rajiv Subba, a cybersecurity expert and assistant professor at Madan Bhandari University of Science and Technology. He suggested that the commission should establish a 'Security Operations Center' (SOC) to monitor the digital system 24/7. 

Subba said that the question of the fairness of the election being raised through false information is more dangerous than technical hacking. “A bigger risk than a cyber attack on voting machines or the voting process is a trust breach,” he said. “If comments like ‘the election process is not fair and is over’ are made on social media, it will cause more damage than hacking the system.” Subba suggested that the Election Commission should establish a security operations center to become technically competent, create a special ‘IT task force’ to work throughout the election period, and form a fact-checking unit to check false, misleading, and hateful statements. “If the commission’s website or Facebook goes down, 10 fake channels can be created at once, so it creates confusion about which channel is the official one,” he said. “The public and the media should be informed in advance about which channel is the official one.”