*In (his latest) controversial move, Elon Musk has come under scrutiny for sharing a heavily edited and manipulated campaign video of Vice President Kamala Harris on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The video, which appears to use deepfake technology, was reposted by Musk without the “parody” label originally provided by the YouTube account “Mr Reagan” and without any additional context, potentially violating X’s policies against misleading content.
The altered video mimics Harris’ voice and repurposes segments from an official Harris campaign ad on YouTube. In the original video, Harris narrates and poses the question: “In this election, we each face a question: What kind of country do we want to live in?” before breaking into Beyoncé’s song “Freedom.”
The manipulated version diverges drastically; a voice that sounds like Harris’ begins by stating, “I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate.”
The altered voiceover continues to make several controversial statements, targeting President Joe Biden’s mental fitness, and Harris’ qualifications, and accusing her of leveraging her gender and race for political advantage. The manipulated content also accuses her of “trying to sound Black” and doing a “Barack Obama impression” in her speeches, according to an NBC News report.
The repost by Musk, viewed 119.9 million times as of Sunday afternoon, did not carry any labels indicating the video’s deceptive nature, which stands in potential violation of X’s policies regarding misleading media. As per X’s terms, “You may not share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm (‘misleading media’). In addition, we may label posts containing misleading media to help people understand their authenticity and to provide additional context.”
This is amazing 😂
pic.twitter.com/KpnBKGUUwn— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 26, 2024
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., publicly rebuked Musk on X, stating, “If @elonmusk and X let this go and don’t label it as altered AI content, they will not only be violating X’s own rules; they’ll be unleashing an entire election season of fake AI voice and image -altered content with no limits, regardless of party.”
Questions still loom over the video’s creation, although speculations suggest advanced AI technologies, like deepfake, may have been used to create the misleading ad. Alexios Mantzarlis, the director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, emphasized that such content, which uses AI to fabricate or alter real-world material authentically, can mislead viewers into believing false narratives.
Harris campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg issued a strong statement condemning Musk and former President Donald Trump. “We believe 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,” Ehrenberg stated.
The controversy continues amidst growing concerns about the ethical ramifications of deepfake and AI technologies in political campaigns and the role of social media platforms in regulating misleading content. As election season heats up, the integrity of information shared online remains a critical concern for voters and policymakers alike.
For now, neither Musk nor X has provided an official response to the incident, leaving many to wonder about the platform’s commitment to its policies on misleading media and the broader implications for future election-related content.
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