2027 Election: INEC Raises Alarm Over AI-Generated Fake News
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned that artificial intelligence-generated disinformation could threaten the credibility of the 2027 general elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN), said the increasing use of AI to create fake audio, videos and images could make it harder for voters to distinguish genuine political information from fabricated content.
Amupitan spoke on Wednesday in Abuja through a National Commissioner, Sani Adam (SAN), at the 13th Annual International Conference of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria. His remarks were contained in a statement signed by INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi.
The INEC chairman said the credibility of elections now depended not only on the integrity of the ballot, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and result sheets, but also on how electoral information was communicated, understood and trusted by voters.
He said INEC was carrying out a comprehensive audit of its electoral technology systems, including system redundancy, penetration testing and disaster recovery plans, ahead of the 2027 election.
Amupitan also disclosed that the commission was considering a mock presidential election to test its preparedness, including voter accreditation, result transmission and result viewing under conditions similar to election day.
He warned that generative AI had made it cheaper and more difficult to detect manipulated political content, while algorithmic microtargeting could allow different groups of voters to receive conflicting political messages.
According to him, such false content could spread to millions of social media users before fact-checkers or electoral authorities could verify it.
Amupitan further disclosed that INEC had proposed a substantial budget for technology and election operations, including new accreditation devices to replace those lost or damaged during the last electoral cycle.
He said the commission was awaiting the full release of the funds, while its ICT team had begun discussions with manufacturers and preparations for the technology audit and proposed mock election continued.