Elon Musk has come under fire for sharing a deepfake video spoofing Vice President Kamala Harris on his social media platform, X.
Despite owning the platform, Musk’s post violates X’s policies against synthetic and manipulated media.
The video Musk shared on Friday alters a recent campaign video of Harris, making it seem as though she said things she did not. In the manipulated clip, Harris says she is “the ultimate diversity hire” and that she “had four years under the tutelage of the ultimate deep state puppet, a wonderful mentor, Joe Biden.” While the original account labeled the video as a “Kamala Harris Campaign Ad PARODY,” this disclaimer was absent in Musk’s repost. Instead, Musk simply added his own commentary: “This is amazing,” accompanied by a laughing emoji.
This incident underscores the growing role of AI-altered media in election cycles and the legal system’s lag in addressing it. Earlier this year, for instance, an AI-generated robocall mimicked President Joe Biden’s voice, urging New Hampshire voters to stay home during the primary. As election officials prepare for AI-related challenges, rules around AI disclosures in political ads remain in development.
Platforms like X are tasked with creating their own misinformation policies. X’s policies state that “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm” is prohibited. The platform evaluates if content has been “significantly and deceptively altered, manipulated, or fabricated,” including overdubbed audio that changes the media’s meaning or context.
It also considers if the content is presented as reality and if it could cause “widespread confusion on public issues, impact public safety, or cause serious harm.” Satire is allowed as long as it doesn’t “cause significant confusion about the authenticity of the media.” Even a lenient interpretation of these policies suggests Musk’s post violates them.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino may now have to address this issue following her boss’s actions. X did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Musk’s post.
Musk’s post has already faced backlash. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) wrote on Threads that if Musk’s post remains without context, X and Musk “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.” Klobuchar has introduced legislation to require disclaimers on politically altered or AI-generated ads.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) also criticized Musk’s post, writing on X that “Manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal,” and announced his intention to sign a bill to address this issue.
In response, Musk linked to the original post of the digitally altered video, which included the parody label, and added, “I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America.”
