War Against Deepfakes... US Biden and Trump Also
Fake Revealed Only After Turkiye Presidential Election Ends
Ahead of the April 10 general election, deepfakes (Deepfake: digitally manipulated visual content that closely resembles reality) have emerged as a serious threat to democracy. Since anyone can easily manipulate a candidate's image, video, or voice using generative artificial intelligence (AI), there is concern that it could be exploited for public opinion manipulation.
Recently, President Yoon Suk-yeol became a target of deepfakes. Manipulated videos featuring the appearance and voice of President Yoon spread on social networking services (SNS). In the video, the fake President Yoon says, "The incompetent and corrupt Yoon Suk-yeol government engaged in privilege, unfairness, fraud, and corruption," and "I, Yoon Suk-yeol, clung to ideology beyond common sense, ruining the Republic of Korea and causing suffering to the people."
The video was deleted as of the 23rd. On the same day, the Korea Communications Standards Commission held an emergency subcommittee meeting and unanimously decided to block the spliced video related to President Yoon, which the police had requested to be deleted and blocked the day before. The commission judged this as the first domestic deepfake content that could cause social unrest by exploiting the president.
A deepfake video of President Yoon Seok-yeol, which recently spread on social networking services (SNS). It has now been blocked by the Korea Communications Standards Commission. [Image source=TikTok capture]
President Yoon's deepfake videos also appeared ahead of the June 2020 local elections. Fake videos showing President Yoon supporting Park Young-il, the People Power Party candidate for Namhae County governor at the time, spread through social media.
According to the National Election Commission, from the 29th of last month to the 16th of this month, over 19 days, there were 129 suspected posts violating the Public Official Election Act, including election campaigning using deepfakes targeting voters. Deepfake videos can negatively affect elections. While AI-generated content was crude in the past, the technology has rapidly advanced to a level where it is difficult to distinguish authenticity.
Last March, a fake image of former U.S. President Donald Trump being arrested by the police circulated. [Image source=X capture]
In fact, deepfake misuse cases are frequent worldwide.
On the 23rd of last month, ahead of the New Hampshire primary election in the United States, voters received deepfake phone calls mimicking the voice of U.S. President Joe Biden. In the call, the fake Biden said, "Your vote can make a change not this Tuesday but in November," urging voters not to vote, causing confusion among voters. Earlier, in March last year, a fake image of former U.S. President Donald Trump being arrested by police circulated.
In the May presidential election in T?rkiye last year, it was only after the election that a fake video was revealed. At the time, a video supporting the opposition coalition candidate Kemal Kılı?daro?lu, spread by the Kurdish separatist armed group Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), was later found to be AI-manipulated. The video was cited as a major reason for Kılı?daro?lu's defeat.
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