India's upcoming general election faces a new weapon against misinformation: blockchain technology. A Taiwanese firm, Numbers Protocol, is teaming up with journalists to create a verifiable record of election news, combating the spread of "digital deception."

This isn't Numbers Protocol's first foray into election fact-checking. They employed similar tactics during the 2020 US presidential election and Taiwan's recent elections.

Here's how it works: partnered news outlets and photojournalists capture election-related content on the ground. They then upload this content to a secure blockchain platform using Numbers Protocol's tools, Capture Cam and Capture Dashboard.

These tools go beyond simple storage. They use artificial intelligence (AI) to detect potential manipulation attempts, like deepfakes, in uploaded photos and videos.

But Numbers Protocol isn't just targeting professional journalists. Civil society organizations are also invited to contribute content using the Capture app. The platform automatically links all user-generated content with "provenance data" – a digital record pinpointing where and how the content originated. This empowers media outlets to verify the authenticity of content quickly and efficiently.

"Fact-checking gets a tech upgrade," as Numbers Protocol co-founder Tammy Yang puts it. Their system uses AI to compare uploaded content to a database of trusted sources. If a match is found, excellent! If not, discrepancies are highlighted, helping users distinguish genuine information from potential fakes.

Further bolstering authenticity, each piece of content receives a unique identifier upon registration. Any alteration to the original content would break this identifier, acting as a red flag for potential tampering. Numbers Protocol even plans to make this verification engine available to the public, empowering everyone to be a truth detective.

"Citizen reporters are just as important as the established press," emphasizes Yang. Numbers Protocol strives for an unbiased approach, allowing all journalists and media outlets the opportunity to participate. Their goal? To present the "full picture," providing users with the provenance of content so they can judge its credibility for themselves.

This initiative promises to create a verifiable record of election news in India, potentially deterring the spread of misinformation and giving voters access to reliable information come election day.