Deepfake ads of Rishi Sunak flood Facebook as UK general election nears
A recent study has found deeper manipulative tactics to paint UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a bad light. The number of Deep fake ads portraying Rishi Sunak has gone up in the last month as Britain nears general elections.
FollowFacebook's policy against impersonation has been exposed as deepfake ads of Rishi Sunak have gone up by multiple levels with malicious content. Deepfake videos and photos of Rishi Sunak are being shared on the Meta platform with false and manipulative content to picture the UK Prime Minister in a bad light. The Guardian, in its report, revealed that communications company Fenimore had unearthed 143 Meta ads impersonating Rishi Sunak through deepfake technology. The voices from the videos and pictures make them deceptively realistic to influence voters against the UK Prime Minister. The 143 ads reached a target audience of 400,000 last month.
This comes as Britain is swiftly moving towards a general election later this year. The tentative date for the election is 14th November 2024. The Rishi Sunak government is already facing anti-incumbency and on top of it, the menace of deep fake is creating a false narrative. A deepfake video impersonating the BBC revealed the UK government invested in Tesla's shares due to its relationship with Elon Musk.
Such videos have not yet been flagged by Facebook which makes users question the content policy of the Meta group. The UK government has taken note of the issue and a spokesperson said, “We are working extensively across government to ensure we are ready to rapidly respond to any threats to our democratic processes, through our defending democracy taskforce and dedicated government teams. Our Online Safety Act goes further by putting new requirements on social platforms to swiftly remove illegal misinformation and disinformation – including where it is AI-generated – as soon as they become aware of it.”
While a Meta spokesperson said, “We remove content that violates our policies whether it was created by AI or a person. The vast majority of these adverts were disabled before this report was published and the report itself notes that less than half a per cent of UK users saw any individual ad that did go live.”
