Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who also owns social media platform X(formerly Twitter), has found himself in hot water after reposting a deepfake election campaign video of US Vice President Kamala Harris on X only. Musk reposted a seemingly digitally manipulated campaign video of Harris, with the words, “This is amazing”, accompanied by a laughing emoji. Several users on the X platform called out Musk over the reposted deepfake video, saying that sharing such content violates X’s policies on synthetic media and misleading identities.
The deepfake election campaign video of Kamala Harris is around one and a half minutes long; it mimics her voice and replaces her words from the original campaign ad in the voice-over. In the digitally altered video, the words used in the voice-over begin with: “I Kamala Harris am your Democrat candidate for President because Joe Biden exposed his senility at the debate.”
The voice-over in the digitally edited video adds statements like “I may not know the first thing about running the country but remember that’s a good thing if you are a deep state puppet” and “I had four years under the tutelage of the ultimate deep state puppet, a wonderful mentor Joe Biden”.
The Harris campaign video reposted by Elon Musk does not have images of former President Donald J. Trump and Senator JD Vance which were there in the original ad “We Choose Freedom”. Instead, it shows the images of Joe Biden.
X user @MrReaganUSA originally posted the Kamala Harris campaign video on X and added in his post that the Kamala Harris video was a “parody.” But when Elon Musk reposted the video eight hours later, he didn’t add any disclaimers.
Reposting the Kamala Harris deepfake video post by @MrReaganUSA in a new tweet, Musk said: “I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America."
What does X’s synthetic and manipulated media policy say?
As per X’s policy on synthetic and manipulated media, one “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”.
“In order for content with misleading media (including images, videos, audios, gifs, and URLs hosting relevant content) to be labeled or removed under this policy, it must:
Include media that is significantly and deceptively altered, manipulated, or fabricated, or
Include media that is shared in a deceptive manner or with false context, and
Include media likely to result in widespread confusion on public issues, impact public safety, or cause serious harm”.
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