Google Partners With The Election Commission Of India To Support The 2024 General Election

Google India has joined hands with the Election Commission to support the upcoming General Elections. It has laid out its approach toward connecting voters to helpful information, combating misinformation, and helping people navigate AI-generated content with moderation. “Supporting elections is a critical part of Google’s responsibility to our users and the democratic process,” Google mentions in a blog post. Here’s a detailed overview of the search giant’s plans for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. 

Google Search And YouTube To Connect Voters To Helpful Information

As part of its initiative to support elections, Google will “make reliable information easily available with helpful product features.” Through its partnership with the Election Commission of India, Google intends to enable people to easily discover critical voting information on Google Search, such as voter registration, candidate profiles, and how to register and vote in English and Hindi. During the election season, YouTube will promote a variety of content from authoritative sources and provide context on topics that could be prone to misinformation.

Combating Misinformation With Relevant Guidelines And Policies

Google’s blog mentions that “protecting the integrity of elections also means keeping our products and services safe from abuse.” To further safeguard itself, Google will rely on YouTube’s Community Guidelines and its political content policies for advertisers. With recent advances in its Large Language Models, the Alphabet-owned company is building faster and more adaptable enforcement systems that should enable it to take necessary action. The company also states that it has strict policies around election-related advertising and that it compiles all election ads in a searchable hub. 

Putting In The Required Restrictions In Gemini

Ahead of the General Elections, Google has also extended its support to Shakti, India Election Fact-Checking Collective, a group of news and fact-checking organizations in India that work together to detect online misinformation early. Further, Google is also putting several restrictions on using AI-generated content, be it images or text, for advertisements. It prohibits the use of manipulated media, such as deepfakes or doctored content. Soon, YouTube will require creators to disclose whether they’ve created synthetic content using AI and display a label for it.

The company is also restricting the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses. Then, there’s the double-check feature, which informs users about relevant Google search results to verify the information generated by the AI chatbot. Further, the About This Image in Search will help people access the context of online images.

“We recently joined the C2PA coalition and standard, a cross-industry effort to help provide more transparency and context for people on AI-generated content,” says Google. Moreover, the company takes the required precautions against misusing its features and products during the General Elections 2024.

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