Regulating Ai Deepfakes And Synthetic Media In The Political Arena

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 6, 2025, 8:46 AM

regulating ai deepfakes and synthetic media in the political arena

The early 2020s will likely be remembered as the beginning of the deepfake era in elections. Generative artificial intelligence now has the capability to convincingly imitate elected leaders and other public figures. AI tools can synthesize audio in any person’s voice and generate realistic images and videos of almost anyone doing anything — content that can then be amplified using other AI tools, like chatbots. The proliferation of deepfakes and similar content poses particular challenges to the functioning of democracies because such communications can deprive the public of the accurate information it needs to make informed decisions in elections. Recent months have seen deepfakes used repeatedly to deceive the public about statements and actions taken by political leaders. Specious content can be especially dangerous in the lead-up to an election, when time is short to debunk it before voters go to the polls.

In the days before Slovakia’s October 2023 election, deepfake audio recordings that seemed to depict Michal Šimečka, leader of the pro-Western Progressive Slovakia party, talking about rigging the election and doubling the price of... Other deepfake audios that made the rounds just before the election included disclaimers that they were generated by AI, but the disclaimers did not appear until 15 seconds into the 20-second clips. At least one researcher has argued that this timing was a deliberate attempt to deceive listeners. Šimečka’s party ended up losing a close election to the pro-Kremlin opposition, and some commenters speculated that these late-circulating deepfakes affected the final vote. In the United States, the 2024 election is still a year away, but Republican primary candidates are already using AI in campaign advertisements. Most famously, Florida Gov.

Ron DeSantis’s campaign released AI-generated images of former President Donald Trump embracing Anthony Fauci, who has become a lightning rod among Republican primary voters because of the Covid-19 mitigation policies he advocated. Given the astonishing speed at which deepfakes and other synthetic media (that is, media created or modified by automated means, including with AI) have developed over just the past year, we can expect even... In response to this evolving threat, members of Congress and state legislators across the country have proposed legislation to regulate AI. AI, Deepfakes, Democracy, election law, First Amendment The Rise of Deepfakes in the 2024 Election Cycle The 2024 U.S.

election cycle has been defined not only by fierce partisanship and record-breaking campaign spending, but also by the rise of a new, destabilizing force: artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes. Synthetic videos and audio of politicians have become a fixture in online discourse, often spreading faster than corrections can catch up. While these tools can, in theory, democratize expression and satire, they also pose unprecedented risks for electoral integrity. The law has lagged behind the progression of this technology, leaving regulators, platforms, and courts struggling to balance free expression against the need to protect voters from deception. A Global Surge in Synthetic Manipulation The sheer scale of this phenomenon is striking.

A 2024 report by the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future documented 82 pieces of AI-generated deepfake content targeting public figures across 38 countries in a single year, with a disproportionate number focused on elections. The Political Deepfakes Incidents Database, a new initiative designed to track synthetically generated political media, demonstrates how quickly and broadly these manipulations diffuse across platforms. AI deepfakes are spreading faster than India’s election safeguards can keep up, and experts warn this may be the most vulnerable election cycle yet. Artificial intelligence has entered electoral politics at a speed that regulators simply did not anticipate. Over the past year, several high-profile incidents worldwide have shown how AI tools can manufacture persuasive political misinformation with almost no cost or effort. In early 2024, voters in the United States received a fake robocall mimicking President Joe Biden’s voice, an incident confirmed by the New Hampshire Attorney General and widely reported by The New York Times.

Around the same time, Slovakia suffered a major disinformation surge when a deepfake audio clip circulated just before its elections, allegedly influencing voter sentiment; both Reuters and BBC News covered the fallout extensively. These events highlight a core problem: governments are still using analog-era safeguards against digital-era threats. India faces a sharper version of this challenge simply because of its digital landscape and scale. With more than 820 million internet users and some of the world’s most active WhatsApp and Instagram populations, India provides fertile ground for rapid misinformation spread. The fact that political outreach in India heavily relies on short videos, forwards, and influencer-style messaging makes the environment even more vulnerable. New analysis from the Brennan Center, echoing many of the recommendations I made in Cheap Speech.

Legislative sessions are in full swing across America, and for the second consecutive year, states are considering bills that crack down on the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated deepfakes in election communications. There was a high degree of concern heading into the 2024 election that AI would be used to turbocharge the spread of misinformation about candidates and the election process. In response, 16 states approved bills aimed at curbing deceptive uses of AI, bringing the total number of states with these restrictions to 20. Now, despite little evidence that AI impacted the 2024 campaign at the level originally feared, lawmakers in 25 states are considering a fresh round of proposals in 2025. This analysis will explore the current legislative landscape and discuss key policy considerations for lawmakers advancing proposals to regulate the use of AI in certain forms of political speech. So far this year, lawmakers in half the states have introduced bills dealing with the use of deepfakes, AI, and other forms of digital technology in an election context.

The bills establish AI restrictions for the first time in 21 of these states, while lawmakers in Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, and Texas introduced bills revisiting laws passed in previous years. Lawmakers in Virginia, South Dakota, and Kentucky sent laws to the desks of Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Gov. Larry Rhoden, and Gov. Andy Beshear and now await their decisions to sign or veto. Additionally, bills in Montana and Maryland have advanced through each state’s senate and now await action in the house.

Bills in Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, South Dakota, and Virginia have seen strong support overall, with 83 percent of total votes cast in favor. The Virginia Senate vote on SB775 was the narrowest margin so far, with 22 supporting and 18 opposed. On the other end of the spectrum, SB 4 passed the Kentucky house and SB 164 passed the South Dakota Senate with over 90 percent voting in favor. Any opposition has come from Republicans—only one Democrat has cast a dissenting vote against any one of these proposals in 2025. While the most common approach to regulation is establishing a labeling requirement for deceptive AI-generated content related to elections, proposals in Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York would instead regulate this content by prohibiting it. The distribution between the two approaches this year is consistent with the first 20 states to approve these laws in that 17 states imposed a labeling requirement while three—California, Minnesota, and Texas—took the prohibition...

One likely reason that most states favor the disclosure policy over prohibition is concern about regulating speech in light of the First Amendment. A federal judge blocked California’s prohibition law in 2024 over concerns that it violated the First Amendment, writing that AB 2839 “unconstitutionally stifles the free and unfettered exchange of ideas which is so vital... While there are no guarantees that disclosure requirements will stand up to legal scrutiny if challenged, most lawmakers are opting to pursue the lighter-touch disclosure policy not yet blocked in federal court. Cognitive Sovereignty: Reclaim Your Mind From Manipulation Shadow Profiles: How Tech Giants Track Non-Users Time Banking: Trading Skills by the Hour, No Money Needed

Single-Parent Households: What Research Really Shows When Mental Health Treatment Becomes Social Engineering The 2020s mark the emergence of deepfakes in general media discourse. The rise in deepfake technology is defined by a very simple yet concerning fact: it is now possible to create perfect imitations of anyone using AI tools that can create audio in any person's... The proliferation of deepfake content in the media poses great challenges to the functioning of democracies. especially as such materials can deprive the public of the accurate information it needs to make informed decisions in elections.

Deepfakes are created using AI, which combines different technologies to produce synthetic content. Deepfakes are synthetically generated content created using artificial intelligence (AI). This technology works on an advanced algorithm that creates hyper-realistic videos by using a person’s face, voice or likeness utilising techniques such as machine learning. The utilisation and progression of deepfake technology holds vast potential, both benign and malicious. An example is when the NGO Malaria No More which had used deepfake technology in 2019 to sync David Beckham’s lip movements with different voices in nine languages, amplified its anti-malaria message. Deepfakes have a dark side too.

They have been used to spread false information, manipulate public opinion, and damage reputations. They can harm mental health and have significant social impacts. The ease of creating deepfakes makes it difficult to verify media authenticity, eroding trust in journalism and creating confusion about what is true and what is not. Their potential to cause harm has made it necessary to consider legal and regulatory approaches. India presently lacks a specific law dealing with deepfakes, but the existing legal provisions offer some safeguards against mischief caused.

Regulating Ai Deepfakes And Synthetic Media In The Political Arena

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