India, Aug. 5 -- When Delhi Police began acting against manipulated videos and misleading posts linked to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests, it appeared to be a straightforward contest between artificial intelligence-generated misinformation and AI-powered detection.

The reality is more complicated.

Delhi Police said thousands of false posts, manipulated videos, and misleading claims had circulated during the protests. Its Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit subsequently issued notices to Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube asking them to remove identified content. Separately, fact-checking organisation BOOM documented at least 20 AI-generated deepfakes linked to the protests.

The episode exposed a central w...