DeepfakeHigh
Alleged Use of Purportedly AI-Generated and Manipulated Media to Misrepresent Candidates and Disrupt Turkey's 2023 Presidential Election
- Occurred
- May 11, 2023
- Published
- May 12, 2023
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
During Turkey's 2023 presidential election, reportedly manipulated and allegedly AI-generated videos, audio, and images were used to smear candidates, purportedly link opposition figures to terrorist groups, and circulate a purported sex tape that reportedly contributed to presidential candidate Muharrem İnce’s withdrawal. These incidents reportedly misled voters, disrupted campaigning, and altered the electoral field.
Developers
- Deepfake technology developers
- Synthetic audio generation technology developers
- Generative AI developers
Deployers
- Supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
- Government of Russia-aligned actors
Harmed parties
- Muharrem İnce
- Kemal Kilicdaroglu
- General public
- General public of Turkey
- Epistemic integrity
- National security and intelligence stakeholders
- Democratic integrity
Classification
Category confidence: 95%
Severity confidence: 90%
Rationale: AI-generated media used to manipulate election outcomes and cause candidate withdrawal constitutes significant harm.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8