AI-Generated Fake News Elections: Deepfakes and Synthetic Media Threaten Democracy

The 2024 election cycle saw unprecedented use of AI-generated content to spread disinformation, including deepfake robocalls impersonating President Biden telling voters to stay home in New Hampshire, AI-generated images of fake endorsements, and synthetic audio clips of candidates making statements they never made. The Biden robocall, created using readily available AI voice cloning technology, reached thousands of voters before being identified as fake. Globally, AI-generated disinformation affected elections in over 50 countries holding votes in 2024. AI-generated content became nearly impossible for average voters to distinguish from authentic media, overwhelming fact-checking capacity. Social media platforms struggled to identify and remove synthetic content at the speed it spread. The crisis prompted the FCC to ban AI-generated robocalls and accelerated legislative efforts to require disclosure of AI-generated political content, but enforcement remained challenging given the ease and low cost of producing sophisticated AI fakes.

The ramifications of this incident extend beyond the immediate data exposure. Privacy regulators in multiple jurisdictions have opened investigations, and affected individuals are organizing collective action to demand accountability and meaningful remediation. The case highlights systemic weaknesses in how organizations handle personal data and the gap between corporate privacy promises and operational reality.

For impacted individuals, immediate action is critical. Filing a data subject access request forces the company to disclose exactly what data they hold about you, providing the foundation for deletion requests, regulatory complaints, and potential legal action. Below, we outline the specific data types at risk and the concrete steps you can take to protect yourself.