X Must Take Down Harris Deepfake To Comply With Its Own Policies
Washington, D.C. — Over the weekend, Elon Musk reposted a deepfake video of Vice President Kamala Harris on X/Twitter, in violation of X’s own policy. In a letter, Public Citizen today called on X to take the video down.
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, offered the following statement in response:
“The deepfake reposted by Elon Musk is sure to mislead many viewers and listeners. The AI-generated version of Vice President Harris’s voice is indistinguishable, or nearly indistinguishable, from her actual voice. The confusion sowed by the video will be consequential, in part because the AI-generated statements ratify themes that Harris’s opponents are trying to connect to her candidacy.
“The repost is in clear violation of X/Twitter’s policy regarding misleading and synthetic media. An after-the-fact statement that content is parody, as Musk appears to have made, does not rescue it from violating the X policy.
“Under X’s current policies, the deepfake should be taken down or, at bare minimum, labeled as AI-generated, its visibility should be reduced, and likes and reposts should be turned off.
“If X’s policies are to have meaning, they must be applied to all users, no matter their power, influence or even ownership of the platform. In fact, to have meaning, they must especially be applied in those cases.
“In recent weeks, it has become fashionable for some commentators to conclude that the worry over political deepfakes was misplaced. Well, here’s the evidence that the fear is very justified.
“A deepfake threat to fair elections is barreling right at us. Twenty states have taken action to prohibit fraudulent political deepfakes, but the federal government has done far too little. Bipartisan legislation is now pending in Congress. It should be passed expeditiously and sent to the president’s desk to be signed.
“There’s no reason for our democracy to be undermined by deepfakes, but to avoid that fate, we need both social media platforms and government officials to take proactive action — right now.”