Billionaire Elon Musk is going through criticism for sharing a deepfake video of US Vice President Kamala Harris. Tech campaigners say this violates the platform’s insurance policies.
Musk reposted a manipulated Harris marketing campaign video. Within the video, a voice mimicking Harris calls President Joe Biden senile and claims she doesn’t “know the very first thing about operating the nation.” It additionally calls her the “final range rent” as a lady and particular person of coloration.
The video was initially posted by a conservative podcaster, Chris Kohls, and labeled a “parody.” Nonetheless, Musk’s repost didn’t embrace this label, solely saying, “That is wonderful,” with a laughing emoji.
That is wonderful
pic.twitter.com/KpnBKGUUwn— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 26, 2024
The repost received over 130 million views, elevating issues about AI-enabled political disinformation forward of the US presidential election in November.
Harris’s marketing campaign said, “We imagine the American folks need the actual freedom, alternative, and safety Vice President Harris is providing; not the pretend, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.”
Musk, with practically 192 million followers, may be very influential on the platform X, beforehand known as Twitter, which he purchased in 2022 for $44 billion.
Earlier this month, Musk endorsed Donald Trump after Trump narrowly escaped an assassination try throughout a marketing campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
California Governor Gavin Newsom stated the manipulated Harris video “must be unlawful” and plans to signal a invoice banning such media.
Musk responded, “parody is authorized in America,” and included the unique video.
Musk’s repost appears to violate X’s insurance policies, which ban sharing “artificial, manipulated or out-of-context media which will deceive or confuse folks and result in hurt.” X didn’t reply to AFP’s request for remark.
Nora Benavidez, senior counsel on the watchdog Free Press, wrote, “Ignoring the principles of the street (as a result of) he purchased the street,” referring to Musk’s obvious violation of the positioning’s insurance policies.
Disinformation researchers are nervous in regards to the misuse of AI know-how in elections as a result of availability of low cost and easy-to-use on-line instruments.
AI-generated content material, particularly audio, is troublesome to determine and prompted nationwide concern in January when a pretend robocall posing as Biden urged New Hampshire residents to not vote within the state’s main.
Benavidez wrote, “Platforms play an outsized position in election cycles. They need to do higher.”