Backlash as Elon Musk posts fake image of Kamala Harris
The world’s richest person Elon Musk has copped flak after posting a fake image of presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
The world’s richest person has copped massive backlash after sharing a fake image of Kamala Harris.
Elon Musk posted an image purporting to show the Democratic presidential candidate dressed in red with a hammer and sickle communist symbol, apparently generated by artificial intelligence (AI), on his social media site X.
Mr Musk, who is heavily backing Republican candidate Donald Trump in the upcoming November election, wrote: “Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit!?”
He was writing in response to Ms Harris who had posted a photo of Mr Trump with the text “Donald Trump vows to be a dictator on day one” and she added, “We won’t let him.”
In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity in December last year, Mr Trump said he was not going to be a dictator “except for day one”. Mr Trump’s aides later brushed that off as an attempt to “trigger the left and the media”.
At no point has Ms Harris vowed to be a “communist dictator”, even in jest.
Mr Musk’s photo mirrors Mr Trump’s attempts to characterise Ms Harris as far-left, with the Republican dubbing her “Comrade Kamala”.
Mr Musk’s photo may be in breach of X’s synthetic and manipulated media policy, which bars people from posting “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm”.
The policy continues that X may “label posts containing misleading media to help people understand their authenticity and to provide additional context.” There is no label attached to the billionaire’s post.
Mr Musk himself has warned about the dangers of AI and in March last year signed an open letter along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak calling for an urgent pause on “giant AI experiments”.
Mr Musk, who as an estimated net worth of $359 billion ($US243.7 billion) and regularly posts memes, once changed his bio to CTO (Chief Troll Officer).
But his latest foray into US election politics was hit with immediate backlash.
Mike Harvey, who ran as a Democratic nominee for the Senate in Florida, blasted the billionaire writing: “You don’t think this type of extreme manipulation at best, flat out lie at worst isn’t dangerous coming from the richest person on earth that happens to own one of the largest platforms?
“Doesn’t all the money and power come with more responsibility?”
Another X user quipped: “It’s because of posts like this, that X is being banned and restricted in other countries”, referencing Mr Musk’s deepening feud with Brazil’s government, which recently led to X being banned.
“This is what full-blown desperation looks like. It’s going to get more nonsensical than this,” one user added.
Another commented: “Aren’t you the one claiming that AI can be dangerous? Well, yeah you’re right, this is a great example.”
