Doctored campaign video featuring US vice-president reposted by Tesla chief executive watched 128m times

Kamala 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 criticises 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 Democrat 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”.

    • NegativeInf@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Because he’s a fragile, litigious, snowflake of a billionaire that cannot even contemplate that anything he does is wrong, let alone illegal.

      • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Thanks for that

        Reporters are expected to be as accurate as possible given the time allotted to story preparation and the space available and to seek reliable sources. Properly using their sources and using accurate quoting and use of words from interview or conversation.[19]

        If you saw where he published it on the website that he owns, the most accurate description would be to say he did it. The average person would understand the true level of uncertainty that way. Whereas if you use uncertainty in your description you are, in fact, misinforming the reader.

        Reporting the truth is almost never libel,[23] which makes accuracy very important.

        Just saying

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, posted on X on Sunday evening that the manipulated Harris video should be “illegal” and that he would soon sign a bill banning such media, in apparent reference to a proposal supported by California lawmakers to ban “materially deceptive” election deepfakes.

    I don’t know why they’re still on Twitter

    If everyone except the right-wing trolls leave, then the whole platform dies quickly.

    • FelixCress@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I don’t know why they’re still on Twitter

      Presumably lack of viable mainstream alternative. Looking at Musk management there won’t be a Twitter in a few years though.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Well an alternative won’t appear as long as people are still sheltering in the corpse of Twitter. I think Mastadon and Blue Sky together will end up holding that torch.

        • FelixCress@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Well an alternative won’t appear as long as people are still sheltering in the corpse of Twitter

          I am not disagreeing with you - I am not using twitter for ages, even before Musk due to their stance on the genocide of Palestinians. I can however see why the politicians do.

  • skizzles@lemmy.ml
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    3 months ago

    So why can’t we call this what it is.

    An attempt at election interference and throw his ass in prison for treason. For such a high profile person it should be considered no less.

  • 242@lemmy.cafe
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    3 months ago

    “I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire,”

    In truth it’s lame ass white dudes who are the kids of rich men who benefit from the system and are handed positions way above their level. Black women have to work their asses off to even get their foot in the door. This “diversity hire” narrative is massive projection. Musk was born on third base and got walked in for the score.

  • Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 months ago

    I feel like being witnessed posting from his own personal account with no remorse or claim of account hijacking warrants a bit more of a strongly worded statement than merely “accused”.

  • teamevil@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    No shit…he called a guy trying to save folks in a cave a pedo because his ego was offended.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    According to X’s synthetic and manipulated media policy

    I honestly thought that they were describing the POLICY as synthetic and manipulated.

    You know, because interpretation and enforcement is entirely dependent on whether you agree with Apartheid Emerald Boy on everything…

  • Media Bias Fact Checker@lemmy.worldB
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    3 months ago
    The Guardian Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [Medium] (Click to view Full Report)

    The Guardian is rated with Medium Creditability by Media Bias Fact Check.

    Bias: Left-Center
    Factual Reporting: Mixed
    Country: United Kingdom
    Full Report: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-guardian/

    Check the bias and credibility of this article on Ground.News:
    - https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftechnology%2Farticle%2F2024%2Fjul%2F29%2Felon-musk-accused-of-spreading-lies-over-kamala-harris-video


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  • N0body@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    In his defense, Elon both owns the platform and is a giant manbaby throwing a neverending tantrum at even the thought of rules applying to him.