Source: AFP
Billionaire X owner Elon Musk came under fire on Monday for sharing a deepfake video of US Vice President Kamala Harris, which tech activists said violated the platform’s own policies.
Musk reposted a spoofed campaign video of Harris in which a voice impersonating her calls President Joe Biden senile and says she “doesn’t know the first thing about running the country,” adding that as a woman and of color she is the “ultimate hire of diversity .”
The video was originally posted by an X account linked to conservative podcaster Chris Kohls and labeled a “parody.”
But Musk’s repost on Friday made no such revelation, saying only: “This is amazing,” along with a laughing emoji.
Musk’s repost has garnered more than 130 million views and comes amid growing alarm over AI-powered political disinformation ahead of the US presidential election in November.
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“We believe the American people want the real freedom, opportunity and security that Vice President Harris offers, not the fake, manipulative lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump,” Harris’ presidential campaign said in a statement.
With nearly 192 million followers, Musk is a highly influential voice on the platform, formerly Twitter, which he bought in 2022 in a $44 billion deal.
Earlier this month, Musk endorsed Trump in a post on X shortly after the Republican narrowly escaped an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, posted on X that the doctored video of Harris “should be illegal” and that he will soon sign a bill banning such media.
A defiant Musk responded to his post, saying “parody is legal in America,” while embedding the original video below it.
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Musk’s repost appeared to violate X’s policies, which prohibit sharing “synthetic, manipulative, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.”
X did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
“Ignoring the rules of the road (because) he bought the road,” Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at the watchdog Free Press, wrote to X, referring to Musk’s apparent violation of the site’s policies.
Disinformation researchers fear the rampant misuse of AI technology in a big election year, thanks to proliferating online tools that are cheap and easy to use and lack adequate safeguards.
The AI-generated content — particularly audio, which experts say is difficult to identify — sparked national alarm in January when a bogus robocall impersonating Biden urged New Hampshire residents not to vote in the state primaries.
“Platforms play a big role in election cycles,” Benavidez wrote. “They have to do better.”
Source: AFP
