The fake endorsements proliferating on social media come as technology platforms dismantle guardrails and moderation policies designed to reduce the spread of dangerous misinformation.
Thursday, August 22, 2024 6:23PMTaylor Swift didn't endorse former President Donald Trump last weekend. Ryan Reynolds wasn't photographed wearing a pro-Kamala Harris shirt. And the Communist Party USA never backed President Joe Biden's now-defunct campaign.
Swift, who previously assailed Trump as "stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism" during his presidency, endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 but has not yet backed a presidential candidate in the 2024 race. Those images appeared "super airbrushed, have high-camera quality" and "everyone is really good-looking," Hansen said. The images make use of "heavy bokeh and background blurring," common traits of AI-generated images, he said.
Roughly 1 in 10 viral posts analyzed by the News Literacy Project contained fake endorsements, according to data provided exclusively to CNN. Those posts described supposed endorsements - or alternatively, public snubs - from celebrities including NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, actor Morgan Freeman, musician Bruce Springsteen, and political figures like former First Lady Michelle Obama.The posts invoking these four figures racked up at least 10 million views, the database showed.
These changes have been most acute on X, formerly known as Twitter, after billionaire Elon Musk purchased the company and gutted in-house teams that worked to stop the spread of election disinformation, and restored the banned accounts of prominent conspiracy theorists and extremists. X did not respond to requests for comment on the creation of misleading images involving political candidates.Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has also cut some staff from its election integrity teams, CNN previously reported. The social media giant said last year that "no tech company does more or invests more to protect elections," and announced that it would require political advertisers to disclose if they used AI to create or alter any images.
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