Truly understanding how AI and deep fake videos are disrupting how people make their minds up about political candidates and current events is a pressing issue.
A quick Google search will reveal thousands of inflammatory headlines and stories, each driven by purposeful misinformation.
Seemingly every country is facing this global problem, and it’s one that is only set to get worse as technology continually outpaces legislation. Let’s take a deeper dive to understand the true global extent of the issue.
Artificially inflated online support for the EACOP
A recent investigation found a deep fake campaign driven by hundreds of fake social media accounts was applying pressure against climate activists.
What appeared to be a swell in support on the ground for a new pipeline turned out to be nothing more than a mirage. This was a campaign used to try and show increased levels of support for what was seen as a widely unpopular policy by the ruling party. The way in which the so-called opinions of these fake accounts may have influenced real people who were undecided is hard to quantify.
South African politics is being continually disrupted
Another report of deep fake political campaigning comes from South Africa — a country long seen as one of the most democratically stable in the region.
Video footage of politicians making outlandish, offensive claims were widely circulated on Whatsapp and social media. Not only did this sideline the actual arguments the politicians were making, but it also drove higher levels of discontent within online echo chambers.
Worryingly for the state of political discourse in the country, the majority of respondents said they were finding it increasingly hard to spot deep fake content.
This becomes an even more pressing concern when social media feeds are designed to show us more of what we like and agree with, even if it didn’t even happen.
Mexican politicians are being actively targeted
An audio recording said to have been made by the mayor of Mexico City seemed to show a political hatchet job being put together.
The claims that the rival was going to suffer at the hands of the mayor were shocking, worrying…but once again, not based on the slightest little bit of reality.
The problem here is that mud sticks, and that means that millions of people will have associated the mayor’s good name with underhand tactics.
Even once it was shown to have been a pretty poor AI fake, there are still hundreds of thousands of comments online that will never go away. This quickly moves us into the dangerous territory of disbelieving everything we don’t agree with, even when there is overwhelming evidence that it is true.
When two sides cannot even agree on the core facts, there is no way in which they can come together and get things done for the greater good.
Presidential candidates are being smeared
Stay in Mexico for a minute and we see the case of Claudia Sheinbaum and the pyramid selling scheme that never was. Video of her begging the nation’s population for money with promises of massive financial returns years into the future soon went viral.
It was a classic pyramid scheme in which you only make money by taking out the deposits of future investors. Could the nation really vote for a woman who thought that such a brazen abuse of power was okay? They didn’t have to…once again, it never happened.
But once again there was the problem that the mud never quite washed away.
There are still those hardcore voters who believe she did it, will never trust her, and will continue to exist within toxic echo chambers. This is a classic example of how misinformation can have a long-term impact on how democracy is eroded within a country.
The UK has recently fallen victim to a deep fake hoax
An AI audio of the London mayor (a practicing muslim) disparaging Remembrance Weekend and the UK’s fallen soldiers has gone viral. Deep fake content of the same mayor later appearing to be staunchly pro-Palestine and antisemitic would soon follow.
In both cases it was shown that the origins of the content were clandestine groups on the far-right. Once again, the negative impression that these paints of a public political figure will never fully go away.
London is a city that is currently in a state of transition and unrest, with rising prices and reduced employment opportunities increasing tension.
It’s at times like these that those on both extremes of the political spectrum look to divide and to blame.
Deep fake content is a uniquely powerful tool because we have all been conditioned to trust what we see with our own eyes. We now think that watching a video is the same as seeing something in-person, but sadly this is no longer the case.
What will happen?
The erosion of trust is the single most pressing problem facing businesses, brands, and political institutions right now.
If a politician can be edited by a deep fake AI to say something inflammatory, how can you trust them? If you play online casino games only to find out the ad taking you there was a deep fake, why would you come back? And if you bought a product online only to see it was missing half of the features once you saw it with your own eyes, why would you ever trust the brand again?
You wouldn’t, and no one in their right mind would disagree with you on this one.