India Is Using AI to Police Identity and Expel Minorities
The Indian state of Maharashtra is developing an AI tool that uses “accent, tone and word choices” to identify and deport Bangladeshi Muslims and displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar. The system is intended for use by law enforcement as a preliminary screening mechanism prior to document-based nationality verification.
Framed as objective technology, the tool is in fact grounded in linguistic profiling that risks reinforcing xenophobia, prejudice, and racial discrimination. Its deployment raises serious concerns under international human rights law, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
This initiative must be situated within a broader expansion of AI-driven border policing. Agencies such as US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the United States have adopted data-driven enforcement systems, and several Indian police departments are increasingly turning to “carceral AI” for policing caste, women and religious minorities.
Related Knowledge Center: Artificial intelligence
On top of a failing business model, newsrooms must navigate the powerful — and not fully reliable — new capabilities of artificial intelligence and the deployment of large language models.
State of the business model | Copyright and intellectual property
Related Knowledge Center: State surveillance
While government monitoring of personal digital communications has traditionally been associated with authoritarian regimes such as China, the Trump regime has moved to use citizens’ personal information in unprecedented ways.
Digital privacy and data security | FISA — Section 702