Elon Musk spreads doctored Kamala Harris campaign video on X

Amid a surge in political misinformation online, X (former Twitter) CEO Elon Musk shared a doctored video of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign video on his platform. The Tesla founder and billionaire retweeted the video on Friday afternoon, in which Vice President Harris’ artificial intelligence voice calls herself the “ultimate diversity worker.”

Tweet may have been deleted

The video, a “parody” created by right-wing YouTuber Mr. Regan, is a re-edited version of Harris’ “We Choose Freedom” campaign video. In this new version, the current vice president calls President Joe Biden an “old man” and a “deep state puppet.” Beyond the DEI hiring line, the film also assumes that Harris believes she is immune to criticism because she is a woman and a person of color.

Mr. Regan noted in his post that the video was a “parody,” but when Musk reposted the video, the CEO offered no such disclaimer. As of this writing, the video has been viewed more than 166 million times, with Musk saying in the post, “This is awesome😂”.

Despite owning the platform, Musk appeared to be willfully ignoring that the video violated X’s terms of service, which prohibit “synthetic, manipulated or taken-out-of-context media that could deceive or confuse people and cause harm.”

Comments and quotes on Musk’s retweeted tweet were quick to point out this fact.

Tweet may have been deleted

Tweet may have been deleted

Tweet may have been deleted

Tweet may have been deleted

Kamala Harris deepfakes have gone viral on Tiktok and X since President Biden announced he would resign before the 2024 presidential election. A bigger problem than ever. Despite such concerns, legal experts say policymakers are still not ready to deal with the exploitative aspects of artificial intelligence. Although Tiktok said they were cracking down on these videos, X took no such action.

Despite a new report showing revenue is down 53% since last year, Musk appears to be satisfied with the way X is being regulated. While political misinformation and conspiracy theories are partly to blame for the revenue decline, X’s CEO remains committed to maintaining its status as a “free speech platform.”