SHARE AN OBVIOUS PARODY AS EVIDENCE OF WHAT A DEEPFAKE CAN DO TODAY, AND YOU GET THIS: Elon Musk Shares Edited Version of Kamala Harris Campaign Ad.

Elon Musk, a master of the memes, is planting his flag in deepfake territory—and risking backlash at a fraught political moment.

Musk, Tesla’s billionaire chief executive, on Friday shared on X an edited version of a campaign video for Vice President Kamala Harris purporting to be a parody. By doing so, he potentially breached his own social-media platform’s policy against sharing synthetic and manipulated media.

The edited ad mimics Harris’s voice to have her say she became the new Democratic candidate for the November presidential election after President Biden “exposed his senility.” In the video, Harris’s altered voice also says she is the “ultimate diversity hire,” and says her work addressing the root causes of the border crisis was “catastrophic.” . . .

By reposting what appeared to be an AI-generated deepfake, Musk might run afoul of an X policy instituted after he took over the platform. The policy, instituted in April 2023, forbids sharing synthetic, manipulated or out-of-context media that might deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.

Among the criteria listed by X to determine whether content should be labeled or removed are whether the media is significantly and deceptively altered; whether it is shared in a deceptive manner or with false context; and whether the content is likely to result in widespread confusion on public issues.

The policy allows memes or satires, provided they don’t cause significant confusion about the authenticity of the media. Musk in resharing the video called it “amazing,” but didn’t say it was purporting to be a parody.

It was self-evidently a parody to anyone who isn’t brain-dead, which is to say to anyone who isn’t a “journalist” or a Democratic political operative. But I repeat myself.