On a quiet Sunday in Islamabad, Pakistan’s cybercrime authorities made an announcement that is likely to shape how the country navigates the digital world for years to come. The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency, widely known as NCCIA, declared that it has created dedicated units in every region with one clear mission: to confront fake news and anti-state propaganda. The move was presented as a necessary step to protect the country from the dangers of misinformation, online deception, and coordinated attempts to destabilize public trust. Ali Nasir Rizvi, the agency’s director general, underscored the official mood when he said there…

Imagine sitting down to watch a campaign video in which a candidate looks straight into the camera and admits to taking a bribe. You recognize the face. You recognize the voice. It feels real, and it sounds real. But it is not real. It was manufactured by artificial intelligence, stitched together from bits of footage and audio to create a confession that never happened. Now imagine that your state has passed a law against AI-generated election deepfakes. Surely that means the video has to come down, right? Not necessarily. In June 2026, the National Conference of State Legislatures counted 31…