Elon Musk in 2023. Image: Simon Walker/No 10 Downing Street/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Musk’s post received more than 128m views, but the lack of labeling to show it is manipulated media appears to violate X’s rules.
Deepfakes are a growing concern for elections and X owner Elon Musk has decided to share one of a US presidential candidate – despite his own platform’s policies.
Musk recently shared a fake campaign video for US vice president Kamala Harris which features an AI-generated version of her voice. The video is critical of Harris and US president Joe Biden, with the AI-generated voice referring to Harris as a “deep state puppet” for example.
The video was originally posted by an X profile called Mr Reagan, which called the video a “Kamala Harris campaign ad parody”. Musk shared the video on his own profile but did not show that it was a parody, simply saying “this is amazing” with a laughing emoji.
Musk’s post caused the number of people who saw the video to surge; Reagan’s post that labels it as a parody gained more than 6m views, but Musk’s post received more than 128m views.
The post follows reports that deepfake videos of Harris have spread on platforms such as X and TikTok since it was announced that she would be the Democratic party candidate in the US presidential election. Musk recently shared his support for Donald Trump in this election, after the former US president survived an assassination attempt during a campaign rally.
But Musk’s sharing of a deepfake video criticising Harris also appears to be in violation of X’s own policies on AI-generated content. The site’s rules state that a user “may not share synthetic, manipulated or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm”.
This policy state that if misleading content is not removed, X may provide “additional context” on the post, such as adding a label or a link to additional explanations or clarifications. At the time of writing, there have been no labels added to Musk’s post.
Various X users have responded with criticism for the lack of a label, while some have pointed out Musk’s changed stance compared to 2022. At that time, Musk said that any account engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying it as a parody account would be “permanently suspended”.
This is not the first time deepfake content has been used in the US. Earlier this year, citizens in New Hampshire received fake calls from an AI-generated voice of Biden urging them not to vote.
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Elon Musk in 2023. Image: Simon Walker/No 10 Downing Street via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
