The Nepal Army and Nepal Police will be enlisted to regulate misleading information and photos/videos created using Artificial Intelligence (AI) being spread on social media targeting the House of Representatives elections.

The commission has established a social media monitoring cell in the Election Commission, and a team from our Cyber ​​Security Directorate has been deployed in it - Rajaram Basnet, Spokesperson, Nepal Army As the election campaign for the 21st Falgun election is widespread in the 'digital space', the Election Commission is going to seek the help of the army and the police to prevent activities that violate the election code of conduct.

Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, spokesperson of the commission, said that a team from the Army's Cyber ​​Security Directorate and the Police's Cyber ​​Bureau have been mobilized for this. 'Technical teams from both the police and the army have already been deployed to the commission and have started content analysis. They will also separate the work according to the seriousness of which law will be attracted,' he said. 'Members of the Nepal Telecommunication Authority, Press Council and Advertisement Board have also been deployed for other assistance. Everyone has been brought together to make it easier to take immediate action on something.'

The army will use its technology to assist the Election Commission in identifying false information, hate messages, defamation, and images and content created from deepfakes being spread on social media, said Army Spokesperson Rajaram Basnet. 'The commission has established a social media monitoring cell in the Election Commission, and a team from our Cyber ​​Security Directorate has been deployed in it,' said Assistant Lieutenant Colonel Basnet, 'We will help in distinguishing whether the content coming on social media is AI-generated or not.' The army is also doing this distinguishing work using AI-based software.

According to Navinda Aryal, director of the police's Cyber ​​Bureau, the police team works to contact social media corporate companies to remove false information, misleading video content, and hate speech found on social media. 'We are in regular contact with social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, X, digital platforms YouTube and WhatsApp, and we write to them to immediately remove objectionable content that violates the election code of conduct,' he said. 'Social media companies are also cooperating to remove such content.'

Aryal said that preparations are being made to write to social media platforms to send their details even in the context of propaganda under pseudonyms. 'We are working with the Election Commission and the bureau under the direction of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Police Headquarters in the context of election-focused monitoring and analysis,' he said.

While working in coordination with the commission, the Cyber ​​Bureau had called Jhapa-3 candidate Swagat Nepal to Kathmandu. After being summoned for investigation on charges of spreading violence on social media, he had reached the bureau's office on 12th of January and had promised not to make such statements. Officials say that the hate speech of the candidates is being monitored.

The Election Commission is also using a software called 'Pulse' to regulate social media. It monitors posts on social media based on certain 'keywords'. As the election date approaches, the promotion of degrading content using AI on social media networks Facebook and TikTok is increasing. Election Commission officials say that the process of removing such content has been initiated.

The commission is also preparing to use 'E-Monitor Plus' for monitoring the content of social media. The United Nations agency UNDP has provided this software to the Election Commission. 'Some friends have been trained for that, but it has not been fully used,' said Spokesperson Bhattarai.