Image source, Getty Images
- author, Marianna Springs
- role, BBC disinformation reporter
Social media site X has taken action against a network that used doctored videos to smear British politicians, including Labour’s Wes Streeting, removing several accounts and posts.
This comes after a BBC investigation (as part of the Undercover Voter project) revealed that a group of accounts were creating and sharing deepfake images in the run up to the general election.
The accounts then posted misleading comments to reinforce the impression that the videos were authentic.
This is the first time in over 12 months that Company X has responded to a complaint I have made. I have contacted them over 12 times with no response.
Elon Musk acquired the social media company formerly known as Twitter in 2022 and has made a number of changes to the site.
This was accompanied by major staff cuts, including from the social media site’s communications team.
In the past, when you emailed X’s PR office, you would get an auto-reply complete with a poop emoji. Now, the auto-reply says, “We’re busy right now. Check back later.”
“X has a range of policies and features in place to protect conversations around the election,” a spokesperson for X told the BBC.
“We label content that violates our synthetic and manipulated media policies and remove accounts that engage in platform manipulation or other serious violations of our rules.”
While some of the fake clips and comments shared by this group of X accounts were clearly absurd and satirical, others falsely portrayed the candidates making politically damaging statements.
In the comments section, a network of X-users are trying to give the video credibility, and it has racked up tens of thousands of views.
One post included an edited video of Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting appearing on BBC’s Politics Live programme, where he is heard to whisper “stupid woman” when talking about politician Diane Abbott, despite the fact that he has never said such words.
The video was shared by user Men for Wes, who expressed his outrage at the “really awful people” in the Labour Party in the comments section. Other users also flooded the comments section to support the video, calling it genuine. Streeting slammed the video as fake.
Streeting’s doctored video was flagged as fake by a fact-checking service run by X readers hours after it was shared. Fake videos of Labour candidates Luke Akehurst, Keir Starmer and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage were also posted by these accounts.
As a result of my investigation, the Men for Wes account was suspended by X and its videos are no longer visible on the site. Several other profiles have also been removed.
An X spokesman also told the BBC that its reader-run fact-checking service, Community Notes, has “more than 500,000 contributors from 70 countries”.
The company said it was “supporting efforts to increase digital literacy during the election period” in the UK.
