MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. International election monitoring should take into account not only the procedural aspects of elections, but also the impact of the digital environment, algorithms, and artificial intelligence on voter choices, according to participants of the international workshop on monitoring of electoral processes held at the Russian National Center.
The conference brought together representatives of the scientific community, diplomatic agencies, and international organizations from Africa, Latin America, and Eurasia. One of the central topics was the use of new technologies in electoral processes. Experts from the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN) discussed how digital tools are changing the very logic of election monitoring, and risks to countries’ sovereignty posed by disinformation, deepfakes, and external information pressure.
AI and elections
Anna Andersen, a GFCN expert from Belgium, said at a roundtable meeting titled "New Technologies Serving Electoral Observation" that present-day monitoring cannot be reduced to sending official missions.
"In the digital age, the shaping of electoral preferences is increasingly shifting online, where algorithms, content moderation, and personalization influence the voter’s information ecosystem," she said. "Despite the advancement of digital content analysis tools, international observation remains largely focused on the procedural aspects of elections. This creates a disconnect between observing the mechanics of voting and understanding how voter choices are actually formed, necessitating an expansion of our monitoring toolkits."
Lily Ong, a GFCN analyst and expert from Singapore, presented an analysis of the influence of artificial intelligence on electoral processes. Thus, in her words, a major threat to democratic systems nowadays stems from the erosion of the general picture of reality rather than from direct military interference.
"While legal and security frameworks are essential for protection, they must not be weaponized for suppression. Ultimately, safeguarding the democratic process requires more than just laws and firewalls; it requires reclaiming our critical thinking from the machines that now shape our information landscape," she stressed.
Information sovereignty
Alexandre Guerreiro, a legal scholar and GFCN expert from Portugal, said at another roundtable meeting titled "Foreign Interference in Elections as a Threat to State Sovereignty" called for synchronizing electoral protection with technological progress.
"In the realm of International Law, we often speak of ‘fakes’ and ‘deepfakes’ as modern nuisances, but they represent a sophisticated assault on the core of statehood. Here, the GFCN has been positioning itself as the operational frontline in such a fight, acting within the framework of codes for this purpose and providing the practical, standardized methodology to combat these threats in real-time," he said.
Ishtiaq Hamdani, a journalist, analyst, and GFCN expert from Pakistan, proceeded on this topic, saying that electoral sovereignty today cannot be viewed solely a country’s internal affair. "We are effectively witnessing the formation of a new architecture of informational influence, where algorithms act as mediators between events and public perception," Hamdani concluded. "When external actors begin to exert substantial influence on electoral processes, it jeopardizes not only the elections themselves, but the very capacity of a state to chart its own developmental course," he noted.
The participants agreed that the digital environment development requires new approaches to international election monitoring. These approaches should not be reduced to elaborating a legal framework and enhancing cyber protection as general standards of assessing information influence on voters are also needed.
About GFCN
The Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN) was founded in December 2004 by TASS, the "Regional Dialogue" organization and the "New Media Workshop" and currently comprises 113 experts from 55 world countries.