‘Bitcoin bomb’: How legacy media played up Supriya Sule’s fake audio clips on election eve

On the eve of elections, you might expect news channels to focus on coverage that helps voters make an informed choice. 

But a day before the Maharashtra assembly polls on November 20, mainstream media outlets erupted with reports alleging involvement of opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders in a 2018 cryptocurrency fraud case. These claims were based on AI-generated “voice recordings” posted on the BJP’s official X account at 10.58 pm on November 19. The saffron party accused NCP-SP leader Supriya Sule and Congress leader Nana Patole of misappropriating bitcoins to fund the polls.

The fake audio quickly went viral. Boom was the first to fact-check, and Sule subsequently filed a cyberfraud complaint with the Election Commission and the police and sent a defamation notice to the BJP. 

However, the damage was already done. 

The “recordings” had been aired on TV news on loop, widely posted on social media, and their implications debated, with little to no fact-checking involved. The tickers called it “bitcoin bomb” and “bitcoin scam”. The anchors said they could not verify the recordings but still played them up. 

The use of deepfakes and AI-generated content in elections has been a much discussed subject in the last one year. This might be the first time in India that an AI-generated recording targeting opposition leaders has become a national issue on the eve of elections. A report by Adobe released in May found that 86 percent respondents in India said that they believe deepfakes and misinformation will impact future elections. 

It begs the question – are traditional newsrooms equipped to handle such scenarios?

India Today fact-checks only after polling  

India Today initially aired the AI-generated clips across multiple shows in the lead-up to the elections. It was only at around 6 pm that its fact-checking unit published a story concluding that at least three of the audio clips were AI-generated. After 6 pm, by which time voting ended in Maharashtra, anchors Preeti Chaudhary and Rahul Kawal ran this on their show, with Chaudhary holding a panel discussion about the findings of the fact-check unit.

Meanwhile, news agency PTI ran two reports. The first video featured Sule telling reporters that she had lodged a police complaint and sent a defamation notice to BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi. The second was a byte of Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who criticised Sule for not providing answers to the BJP’s questions about the same. 

PTI runs a separate fact-checking vertical, certified by the International Fact-Checking Network, where it asks readers to “join the fight against fake news”. At the time of publishing this video, there were no fact-checks on Sule’s audio recording. Instead, on November 21, PTI published a fact-check on how a video from a trailer launch was falsely shared as a crowd at a Maha Vikas Aghadi event.

Media trial on Aaj Tak, Republic, News18

On Aaj Tak, anchor Anjana Om Kashyap, known for her bulldozer reportage, wore the hat of a bitcoin specialist on November 20. During her show Halla Bol, she called the alleged scam “bitcoin kand” and “bitcoin bomb” and discussed its impact on the assembly elections, even as the NCP (Sharad Pawar) spokesperson explained on the show that the clip was AI-generated.

Kashyap’s colleague Sahil Joshi, who heads the Mumbai bureau of Aaj Tak, eventually joined her on the show once voting ended in Maharashtra. He referenced India Today’s fact-check on the clips being AI-generated. Kashyap then explained how tools could be used in this manner. 

At Republic World, Arnab Goswami positioned himself as the only journalist brave enough to take up the issue on his show The Debate with Arnab Goswami on November 20. He claimed that “all the news networks were trying to black out the story. But the Republic covered it in such a way, bringing in eyewitnesses and witnesses that everyone was compelled to cover the story”.

Goswami first questioned the credibility of the audio clips.  Why would Sule leave behind evidence like voice notes, he asked. How could the BJP trust the recordings without an investigation?

Fair points, but Goswami then said Sule was posting “tweet after tweet” which could indicate guilt. He even said Sule might be watching his show since “Republic was number 1” and that she should come on the show to clarify the matter. 

On News18 India, the anchor of primetime show Sabse Bada Dangal said: “Rajneeti bohot kuch sikha deti hai. Bhale andar seh aapko lage ke aap phas gaye hai, but bohot confident aap sound karte hai, voh Supriya Sule nazar aai. Unhone kaha ki mai har jaanch ke liye tayaar hu, cyber crime mai maine complaint kadi hai…” 

Loosely translated, “Politics teaches you a lot. Even if from inside you feel like you have been caught, you can sound very confident, which Sule appears to be. She has said she is ready for an investigation and has filed a complaint with cybercrime.”    

Times Now called the controversy “stunning”, “Maha bitcoin bawaal” and “bitcoin bombshell”. TV9 called it a “cash scandal”.

NDTV, in a show on November 20, pointed out this was an “allegation” by the BJP. Its ticker said “BJP slams MBA over ‘bitcoin scam’” and “BJP questions MVA’a involvement in ‘bitcoin scam’” but the headline was more emphatic – “Exposed: BJP alleges bitcoin scam in Maharashtra poll, Supria Sule reacts”. NDTV also aired BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi’s allegations of “fraud” though its anchor said the audio’s veracity hadn’t been verified and that Sule had moved the Election Commission over “cybercrime”.

The next day, the Adani-owned news organisation republished a fact-check by The Quint where it concluded that the audio clips were not authentic.

Newslaundry reached out to India Today, PTI, Aaj Tak, Republic, News18, Times Now and NDTV for comment. This report will be updated if they respond.

Nivedita Niranjankumar, a news editor at fact-checker website Boom who had fact-checked the Sule clip, said there are multifold implications of news channels running claims without attempting to verify them. 

“Fact-checking organisations do not have as much reach as legacy media. So there is a good chance that people saw this news item but not the fact-check,” she said. “With news channels, there is no editorial judgement when it comes to breaking news. It is more like the fastest fingers first. Even as a regular person, if you hear a recording like this, you would know it is fake. News channels have access to the people being accused. They can easily speak to them and run both the recordings on TV to attempt to verify.”

Niranjankumar said Boom decided to take up the story all the more because the recordings emerged from the BJP’s official social media handle. The second reason, she said, was because it was clear on the first instance of hearing the recording that it was fake. 

“It was a blank state when I started working on it. There were no news articles even questioning the authenticity of the recordings. It took a few searches to get the context. Basic verification is increasingly lacking in traditional media. Just by attributing the information to official handles, news organisations cannot get away with carrying fake news. That’s not how news verification works,” she said.

Restraint by regional channels

Regional channels picked up the story too. In Maharashtra, Marathi outlets provided wall-to-wall coverage with tickers and hashtags like “Bitcoin ghotala (bitcoin scam)”.

There were no specific package videos about the incident in both Malayalam and Tamil mainstream news channels. However, it did appear on the Tamil YouTube channel Chanakyaa, run by journalist Rangaraj Pandey, who used to be a star anchor on Thanthi TV before his right-wing slide. The video report just mentioned the allegation and Sule’s response to it with the headline: “The shocking audio of Sharad Pawar’s daughter”.

EC guidelines and what the law says

In its advisory issued on May 6, 2024, the Election Commission urged political parties to use social media responsibly and refrain from sharing misinformation or misleading content. The advisory specifically prohibits dissemination of false, untrue, or synthetically generated information that appears authentic but is intended to deceive people.

Additionally, the EC has imposed a strict ban on the creation, publication, and circulation of deepfake audio or video content that violates existing regulations. Political parties are required to remove such posts within three hours of being flagged and identify and warn those responsible within the party.

The advisory lists legal provisions such as section 123(4) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 which deals with publishing false statements about a candidate’s character, conduct, or candidature, if done knowingly or without belief in its truth, with the intent to harm their election prospects. It also cites section 66D of the IT Act that punishes individuals who use communication devices or computer resources with malicious intent, leading to impersonation or cheating.

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