Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, which boasts over 500 million active users, recently shared a manipulated video of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Musk's account, which has 191.6 million followers, posted the altered clip with the caption, "This is amazing," accompanied by a laughing emoji. The post garnered 128 million views.
The doctored video, using AI technology to mimic Harris' voice, falsely depicts her saying, "I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire. I'm both a woman and a person of colour, so if you criticize anything I say, you're both sexist and racist."
This message is entirely contrary to the content of Harris' original campaign video titled "Freedom." The genuine video, which focused on her campaign's themes and proposals, only attracted 1.1 million views on YouTube, while the fake one has gone viral.
"In this election, we each face a question: What kind of country do we want to live in?" Harris says in the ad. "There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos, of fear, of hate. But us? We choose something different. We choose freedom," Kamala is being heard in the original video.fake
Harris' campaign team issued a statement following the viral fake advertisement: "We believe the American people want the real freedom, opportunity, and security Vice President Harris is offering, not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and [former President] Donald Trump."
{{/usCountry}}Harris' campaign team issued a statement following the viral fake advertisement: "We believe the American people want the real freedom, opportunity, and security Vice President Harris is offering, not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and [former President] Donald Trump."
{{/usCountry}}Musk, who has expressed support for Trump, has been accused of using the platform to propagate against the Biden administration and promote Trump and right-wing views. He has reinstated several controversial figures who have spread misinformation to bolster Trump's false claims, including conspiracy theories such as "Biden is dead" following his COVID-19 diagnosis and "Kamala wears a mask," without any checks or filters.
The fake video also caught the attention of California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has threatened to introduce legislation to curb deceptive advertisements. "Manipulating a voice in an 'ad' like this one should be illegal. I’ll be signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is."
In response, Elon Musk went on the defensive, sarcastically stating, "I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America."
So what's Suggon Deeznutz?
‘Suggon Deeznutz’ joke is a play on words that is part of a broader category of jokes known as "deez nuts" jokes. It is a vulgar phrase that plays on the sound of the phrase "Suggon" (which sounds like "suck on") leading into "deez nuts." These types of jokes often rely on catching someone off guard and are popular in internet meme culture. While they can be amusing to some, they are also often considered childish or inappropriate in certain contexts.