Amid a surge in political misinformation online, X (formerly Twitter) CEO Elon Musk shared a doctored clip of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign on his platform. The billionaire Tesla founder reposted the video featuring an AI voice of Vice President Harris on Friday afternoon, calling himself the “ultimate diversity hire.”
The tweet may have been deleted
The video is a “parody” created by right-wing YouTuber Mr. Reagan, and is a re-edited version of Harris’ “We Choose Freedom” campaign video. In the new version, the incumbent vice president can be heard calling President Joe Biden “demented” and a “puppet of the deep state.” In addition to making the case for DEI inclusion, the video also claims that Harris believes she is immune to criticism because she is a woman and a person of color.
Reagan said in his post that the video was a “parody,” but the CEO did not include such a disclaimer when Musk reposted it. As of press time, the video has been viewed more than 166 million times, with Musk saying in his post, “This is awesome 😂.”
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Despite owning the platform, Musk appears to willfully ignore that the video violates X’s terms of service, which prohibit “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive, confuse, or cause harm to people.”
Musk’s comments on the repost and quote-tweets were quick to point out this fact.
The tweet may have been deleted
The tweet may have been deleted
The tweet may have been deleted
The tweet may have been deleted
Deepfakes of Kamala Harris have gone viral on TikTok and X since President Biden declared he would step down ahead of the 2024 presidential election. As the November election draws closer with each passing day, political deepfakes have become a bigger issue than ever. Despite the concerns, legal experts say policymakers aren’t ready to tackle exploitative AI. And while TikTok says it’s fighting these videos, X has made no such moves.
Despite new reports that revenue is down 53 percent since last year, Musk seems happy with how X is being run, and the X CEO remains committed to keeping X a “platform for free speech,” even though political misinformation and conspiracy theories are part of the reason for the decline in revenue in the first place.
topic
Artificial Intelligence Politics
