Harris’s election campaign has accused Elon Musk of spreading “manipulated lies” after the Tesla chief executive posted a doctored video featuring the vice-president on his X account.
Musk reposted a manipulated Harris campaign video on Friday evening in which a fake Harris voiceover says “I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire” and that anyone who criticizes her is “both sexist and racist”.
The video has been viewed 128m times on Musk’s account after the world’s richest man posted it with the words “this is amazing” followed by a laughing emoji. Musk owns X, which he rebranded from Twitter last year.
Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic senator, accused Musk of violating the platform’s guidelines. According to X’s synthetic and manipulated media policy, users are barred from sharing “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm” although allowances are made for satire provided it does not “cause significant confusion about the authenticity of the media”.
In a statement to the Associated Press, a reporter for Harris’s presidential campaign said: “The American people want the real freedom, opportunity and security Vice President Harris is offering; not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.”
The video was posted originally by the @MrReaganUSA account, which is linked to the conservative YouTuber podcaster Chris Kohls, on X and is labeled a parody.
However, Musk, who has endorsed Donald Trump’s candidacy, did not flag the video as a parody when he posted it.
The Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, posted on X on Sunday evening that the manipulated Harris video should be “illegal” and that he will soon sign a bill banning such media, in apparent reference to a proposal supported by California lawmakers to ban “ materially deceive” election deepfakes.
