Surge in AI-generated political videos ahead of Singapore general elections (2025)

PTI

Updated: April 21, 2025 18:23 IST

Singapore, Apr 21 (PTI) There has been a surge in the creation of online videos using artificial intelligence (AI) tools related to Singapore's general election on May 3 and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, according to a media report.
Wong featured in seven out of the 11 potentially problematic videos, according to a Channel News Asia report.
The most widely circulated one is more than two minutes long and features an AI-generated portrait of Wong with a text-to-speech voiceover in Thai. It was posted by the TikTok account @sparkupdate on April 15.
Captioned "Singapore's parliament dissolved, paving the way for general elections", this video has been played more than 70,000 times and received more than 3,700 reactions.
Other videos feature senior minister Lee Hsien Loong and cabinet ministers Chee Hong Tat, Desmond Lee, Edwin Tong, Gan Kim Yong and Heng Swee Keat.
Opposition politicians have also appeared in some of the videos.
The report said it detected 73 such videos posted between April 15 and April 19.
This was more than the 64 such clips in an entire month from March 14 to April 14.
All the videos were posted on TikTok, according to the report, which added that these videos started appearing on April 15, when the Writ of Election was issued.
Some videos do not conceal the fact that they are digitally manipulated. They depict the politicians in unlikely costumes such as football uniforms, imperial court robes or a Wonder Woman getup.
The upswing in such videos comes despite a new law banning digitally generated or manipulated content that misrepresents what candidates say or do, regardless of whether it is favourable or unfavourable to them.
GE2025 is the first time the legislation is in place. From April 15 to Nomination Day on April 23, the ban covers prospective candidates who have paid their election deposits and given the Elections Department consent to make their candidature public.
After nomination proceedings close, the ban will cover all candidates through the remainder of the election period, according to the Channel report.
Out of the 73 AI-generated, GE-related videos posted since April 15, as many as 11 contain digitally generated or manipulated visuals of prospective candidates, potentially violating the new law.
The number grows to 27 if the count includes videos that contain genuine footage of prospective candidates, but together with AI elements like avatars and text-to-speech voice-overs.
Under the law, corrective directions can be issued to individuals, requiring them to take down the content, or to social media providers, asking them to disable access.
The Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) said the public would be notified if there were any issues.
The ministry said it was "closely monitoring Singapore's online space during the general election".
"There are processes in place to monitor for and minimise the risk of election interference that can arise from the spread of prohibited content, such as deepfakes misrepresenting candidates," the channel had the ministry as saying.
"Dedicated teams are standing up during the election period for this purpose, and they will work closely with social media services to act swiftly on prohibited content."
The MDDI also said candidates and members of the public should remain "alert and discerning consumers of information".

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)