For better or ill, Elon Musk likes to point us toward the future. Now he’s done so with elections, and in a way that’s more ill than better.
We all need to be paying attention, especially as this year’s campaigns start boiling. Americans, particularly those with an uncritical partisan bent, are far too easy to fool, and the nation’s enemies are taking note.
About a week ago, someone with the handle @MrReaganUSA uploaded to X a doctored version of a campaign video from the Kamala Harris people, in which her voice is digitally altered to say President Biden has been exposed as senile and that she is the candidate now, even though she doesn’t “know the first thing about running the country.” Also, her voice is heard saying she is the “ultimate diversity hire” because she is a woman and a person of color.
Easy to spot as a fake, right? Don’t be so sure.
We all need to be paying attention, especially as this year’s campaigns start boiling. Americans, particularly those with an uncritical partisan bent, are far too easy to fool, and the nation’s enemies are taking note.
About a week ago, someone with the handle @MrReaganUSA uploaded to X a doctored version of a campaign video from the Kamala Harris people, in which her voice is digitally altered to say President Biden has been exposed as senile and that she is the candidate now, even though she doesn’t “know the first thing about running the country.” Also, her voice is heard saying she is the “ultimate diversity hire” because she is a woman and a person of color.
Easy to spot as a fake, right? Don’t be so sure.
The original post included a note acknowledging it was “parody.” Musk, however, reposted it to his roughly 192 million followers without that note.
He did, however, write “This is amazing” and insert a laughing emoji — two things that could be interpreted in multiple ways.
And, just like that, the United States became Slovakia.
Or, at least, it became just like Slovakia.
A year ago, during an extremely close election there, voters were surprised to hear what sounded like a radio interview between a journalist and Michal Šimečka, one of the leading officials of a political party. Posted on Facebook, it sounded just like Šimečka was discussing ways he intended to rig the election.
As I wrote earlier this year, it was all fake, but Šimečka’s party lost the election.
Was Russia behind it? All we know is that Šimečka’s party was pro-NATO. The opposition party was not.
An Associated Press report this week said the Kremlin is hiring Russian public relations firms and stepping up its efforts to spread election disinformation in the United States. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s decision to drop out made them alter their playbook, but the effort continues. Russia poses the biggest threat, but China and Iran are cautiously expanding their efforts, as well, U.S. intelligence authorities said.
And why not? Americans are particularly gullible when it comes to political lies.
Earlier this year, even Republican leaders in Congress were distressed over how easily some of their own colleagues were buying into stories about corruption in Ukraine, including the wild accusation that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had used aid money to buy yachts. The subject reportedly came up in a closed door session between congressional leaders and Zelenskyy.
NBC News quoted Republican House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul saying, “Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base.”
If lawmakers believe the propaganda, it spreads easily to partisan voters, especially if faked social media posts reinforce the messages.
The AP quoted Sen. Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who said after a recent intelligence briefing that the U.S. seems more vulnerable than it was in 2020. The briefing, he said in a statement, emphasized “the extent to which foreign actors — and particularly Russia — rely on both unwitting and witting Americans to promote foreign-aligned narratives in the United States.”
Faked video and audio, Slovakian-style, may be particularly effective.
In a television report, NBC business and tech reporter Scott Budman said if you watch the doctored Harris video “for any length of time, you’ll probably realize it’s fake.”
Spoken like someone who immerses himself in news and politics on a daily basis. Regular people who pay little attention to serious political reporting in the middle of summer but who find stuff while idly scrolling may not realize it, at all.
The Musk retweet had at least 130 million views at the beginning of this week, according to NBC.
Utah law requires anyone who uses AI in a political ad to make a disclosure. Violators may be fined up to $1,000 for each infraction. Several other states have similar laws. These might deter people from using deep fakes in local elections, but they can hardly withstand an onslaught from Russian PR firms flooding social media from abroad. Many people say Washington needs tougher laws.
Ultimately, however, what we need are regular Americans who are more attuned to disinformation, even when it reinforces their own biases. That’s a big ask, but without it the future of politics, self-government and liberty looks rocky, indeed.
He did, however, write “This is amazing” and insert a laughing emoji — two things that could be interpreted in multiple ways.
And, just like that, the United States became Slovakia.
Or, at least, it became just like Slovakia.
A year ago, during an extremely close election there, voters were surprised to hear what sounded like a radio interview between a journalist and Michal Šimečka, one of the leading officials of a political party. Posted on Facebook, it sounded just like Šimečka was discussing ways he intended to rig the election.
As I wrote earlier this year, it was all fake, but Šimečka’s party lost the election.
Was Russia behind it? All we know is that Šimečka’s party was pro-NATO. The opposition party was not.
An Associated Press report this week said the Kremlin is hiring Russian public relations firms and stepping up its efforts to spread election disinformation in the United States. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s decision to drop out made them alter their playbook, but the effort continues. Russia poses the biggest threat, but China and Iran are cautiously expanding their efforts, as well, U.S. intelligence authorities said.
And why not? Americans are particularly gullible when it comes to political lies.
Earlier this year, even Republican leaders in Congress were distressed over how easily some of their own colleagues were buying into stories about corruption in Ukraine, including the wild accusation that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had used aid money to buy yachts. The subject reportedly came up in a closed door session between congressional leaders and Zelenskyy.
NBC News quoted Republican House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul saying, “Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base.”
If lawmakers believe the propaganda, it spreads easily to partisan voters, especially if faked social media posts reinforce the messages.
The AP quoted Sen. Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who said after a recent intelligence briefing that the U.S. seems more vulnerable than it was in 2020. The briefing, he said in a statement, emphasized “the extent to which foreign actors — and particularly Russia — rely on both unwitting and witting Americans to promote foreign-aligned narratives in the United States.”
Faked video and audio, Slovakian-style, may be particularly effective.
In a television report, NBC business and tech reporter Scott Budman said if you watch the doctored Harris video “for any length of time, you’ll probably realize it’s fake.”
Spoken like someone who immerses himself in news and politics on a daily basis. Regular people who pay little attention to serious political reporting in the middle of summer but who find stuff while idly scrolling may not realize it, at all.
The Musk retweet had at least 130 million views at the beginning of this week, according to NBC.
Utah law requires anyone who uses AI in a political ad to make a disclosure. Violators may be fined up to $1,000 for each infraction. Several other states have similar laws. These might deter people from using deep fakes in local elections, but they can hardly withstand an onslaught from Russian PR firms flooding social media from abroad. Many people say Washington needs tougher laws.
Ultimately, however, what we need are regular Americans who are more attuned to disinformation, even when it reinforces their own biases. That’s a big ask, but without it the future of politics, self-government and liberty looks rocky, indeed.
RSS Feed
