Shodh Prabha: A Multidisciplinary Journal

Political Communication and Fake News: Challenges to Electoral Integrity in the Digital Era

This study explores the connection between political communication, fake news and electoral integrity in the digital world. Electoral communication has been revolutionized by digital platforms, whose use has allowed for the mobilization of voters in an agile way, direct political involvement and greater dissemination of campaign information. In the same way, the very same platforms have also facilitated the spread of misinformation, disinformation, edited images, deepfakes and partisan propaganda. The study is based on secondary data from scholarly literature, election reports, institutional documents and fact-checking sources which are analysed through a qualitative, descriptive and analytical approach. The results indicate that fake news poses a threat to electoral integrity in the following ways: it affects voters' perception of the election; it undermines trust in institutions; it tarnishes candidates' reputation; and it aggravates polarization in politics. This is especially important when considering the Indian context with its huge population, linguistic diversity, and the growing penetration of the internet in rural areas as well as the use of numerous platforms like WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and X. The study makes the case that a secure election process is not sufficient for free and fair elections; it must also be accompanied by a trustworthy digital information environment. It suggests more robust platform accountability, multilingual fact-checking, transparent political advertising and ethical digital campaigning and citizen media literacy.