Fact Check: BJP Shares AI Audio Clip Of Supriya Sule Alleging "Poll Fraud"
NDTV
The conversations revolved around money and cryptocurrency (Bitcoin), and all of them were speaking with one Gaurav Mehta, who is allegedly an employee of an audit firm.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shared four audio clips on their official X (formerly Twitter) account to claim that it is a conversation recorded involving Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders Supriya Sule (NCP-SP), Nana Patole (Congress) and IPS officer Amitabh Gupta. Sule issued a statement calling the clips 'fake' and has lodged a cyber crime complaint. To start off with, Gupta pronounces the name 'Gaurav' and 'Lakshmi' incorrectly. We ran this audio clip on the AI-detection tool, TrueMedia, which concluded that there was substantial evidence of manipulation. AI-Generated Audio Detector returned with 100 percent confidence which concludes that the audio is fake. Team WebQoof contacted ConTrails AI, a Bengaluru-based startup, that has developed its own AI technology for identifying fake audio and video content. Their report indicated that the audio file is AI generated or manipulated with high confidence. AUDIO 2: Congress leader Nana Patole in conversation with IPS Amitabh Gupta In this short audio clip, Patole is allegedly threatening Gupta to convert the bitcoin for cash. When we uploaded the video to TrueMedia's AI-detection tool, it concluded that this audio is fake too. There was little evidence of manipulation. We also compared Patole's voice in the audio recording to his interviews on YouTube channel, The Lallantop, shared on 15 November 2024. The voice in the audio clip did not match Patole's original voice. The tools found, with high confidence, indications of AI-related audio manipulation. In this audio clip, Sule asks Mehta for cash in exchange for bitcoins. We compared Sule's voice in the voice note to her interview on Samdish Bhatia's video podcast, Unfiltered By Samdish in 2023. We noticed that her original voice does not match the one heard in the audio clips shared by BJP. ConTrails report also noted that the audio is manipulated. Moreover, Sule took to X to clarify that this audio clip shared by BJP linking her to a conversation regarding Bitcoins is fake. She has also lodged a cyber crime complaint. Familiar tactics of spreading false information to manipulate the righteous voters are being resorted to, a night before the polling day. We have filed a criminal complaint to the Hon'ble ECI & the Cyber crime department against the fake allegations made of bitcoin... pic.twitter.com/g8Selv1DFk ConTrails report also noted that the audio is manipulated.
The conversations revolved around money and cryptocurrency (Bitcoin), and all of them were speaking with one Gaurav Mehta, who is allegedly an employee of an audit firm.
BJP shared these audio clips on 19 November, a day before Maharashtra was set to witness assembly elections and claims that these are 'proof of polling fraud'.
(These posts can be seen here, here, here and here.)
