A hot potato: Elon Musk has come under fire for sharing an altered video of Kamala Harris that could be a violation of X’s own policies on deepfakes. The billionaire owner of the former Twitter platform reposted the clip, in which a voice that sounds like Harris says she is the “ultimate diversity hire” and that President Biden is senile.
On Friday, Musk reposted a nearly two-minute-long video from another user, @MrReaganUSA, writing “This is amazing,” followed by a laughing emoji.
This is amazing ðÂÂÂ
pic.twitter.com/KpnBKGUUwn– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 26, 2024
The video is an edited version of Harris’ own campaign ad that was released on Thursday, titled “We Choose Freedom.” It features a deepfaked voice of Harris that says “I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire” and that she doesn’t “know the first thing about running the country.”
The video was also edited to replace Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, with images of Biden. Since being reposted by Musk, the video has been viewed almost 129 million times.
Several users have pointed out that Musk could be breaking X’s rules that prohibit the sharing of “synthetic, manipulated or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.” While the original post by @MrReaganUSA states that it is a parody, Musk included no such disclaimer.
X’s policies also state that it “may label posts containing misleading media to help people understand their authenticity and to provide additional context.” Musk’s post has not been labeled.
As noted by The New York Times, Alex Howard, a digital governance expert and the director of the Digital Democracy Project at the Demand Progress Education Fund, wrote that the post violates X’s policies, asking, “Are you going to retroactively change them to allow violations in an election year?”
X policies do allow some cases where altered media is allowed to stay and won’t be labeled as misleading. This includes memes and satire, as well as commentary, reviews, opinions, and/or reactions, provided they do not cause significant confusion.
In a statement, the Harris campaign said, “The American people want the real freedom, opportunity, and security Vice President Harris is offering, not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.”
Recent advancements in generative AI mean there has been a focus on its use during this year’s election like never before. In February, several of the biggest tech companies signed an accord to fight AI interference in elections. It aims to root out deepfake and generative AI content designed to influence or interfere with citizens’ democratic right to vote.
There have also been warnings from Microsoft about China’s use of generative AI to sow disruption in the United States during this election year.
The most significant politically motived use of AI came in January when someone cloned President Biden’s voice to help suppress voting in the New Hampshire primary.