Elon Musk accused of spreading doctored Kamala Harris video

Kamala Harris’s election campaign has accused Elon Musk of disseminating “manipulated lies” after the Tesla CEO shared a doctored video of the US Vice-President on X. The video, posted by Musk on Friday evening, features a fake voiceover attributed to Harris, stating she was “selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire” and that critics are “both sexist and racist.” Musk captioned the video with “this is amazing” and a laughing emoji. The post has garnered 128 million views.

Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic senator, has accused Musk of breaching X’s synthetic and manipulated media policy. According to this policy, users are prohibited from sharing “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media” that may mislead or confuse people. However, satire is permitted if it does not cause significant confusion about the media’s authenticity.

A spokesperson for Harris’s campaign responded, “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.” The original video was posted by @MrReaganUSA, associated with conservative YouTuber Chris Kohls, and is labelled as parody.

California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the video, stating it should be “illegal” and announced plans to sign a bill banning “materially deceptive” election deepfakes. Musk defended the video, asserting that “parody is legal in America.”

Hany Farid, a deepfake expert from the University of California, Berkeley, commented on the video’s impact, stating, “The AI-generated voice is very good,” highlighting the growing influence of generative AI and deepfakes in political discourse.