Politics & elections
Candidates, parties, campaigns and voters: political deepfakes, AI-driven disinformation and influence operations.
Last 12 months · since Nov 4, 2025
Official warnings and preparedness
Public warnings, exercises, advisories and new rules from heads of government, ministers, regulators, central banks, intergovernmental bodies and national cyber agencies. Each entry links to its source.
- AdvisoryFBI · Security agencyUnited States
FBI warns of AI-enabled scams around US midterm elections
The FBI warned of AI-enabled scams tied to the midterm elections, including fake fundraising appeals and theft of personal data, which it said can look highly convincing.
Source: 世界新聞網
- AdvisoryFBI and CISA · Security agencyUnited States
FBI and CISA warn election officials of AI-assisted phishing and deepfakes
A joint PSA said cyber actors targeting election and campaign officials use AI to write natural-sounding phishing emails and create deepfake video and audio, and advised checking content credentials or watermarks.
Source: FBI IC3
- AdvisoryFBI Internet Crime Complaint Center · Security agencyUnited States
FBI warns scammers exploit 2026 midterms with AI impersonation of candidates
The FBI warned of fake PACs, candidate investment pools, bogus merchandise and fake voter registration, noting scammers use AI to create realistic voices, images and messages impersonating candidates and campaigns.
Source: FBI IC3
- WarningENISA · IntergovernmentalEU
ENISA Threat Landscape 2026 reports growing malicious use of AI by threat groups
ENISA said threat groups increasingly use AI and also target AI systems, that synthetic audio, video and text are part of influence operators' daily arsenal, and that AI integration extends the attack surface.
Source: ENISA
- WarningEuropean Parliament Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield · LegislatureEU
European Parliament committee calls for stronger measures against malicious deepfakes
The special committee adopted a report calling for stronger measures against malicious deepfakes and fraudulent ads, exposure of hidden generative AI disinformation campaigns and faster platform responses to bot-driven interference.
Source: European Parliamentary Research Service
- AdvisorySingapore Police Force · Security agencySingapore
Singapore police warn of deepfake Zoom scam impersonating senior government officials
Police said a victim lost at least S$4.9 million after a Zoom call whose participants, appearing to include the Prime Minister, were fabricated with deepfake AI, and warned that officials never ask for money transfers.
Source: Singapore Police Force
- RuleElection Commission of India · RegulatorIndia
Election Commission of India requires 3-hour action on unlawful AI content during state polls
The ECI directed that misleading or unlawful AI-generated content be acted on within 3 hours of notice to platforms, and that parties label synthetic campaign material and disclose its origin. Over 11,000 posts were acted on since 15 March.
Source: Press Information Bureau, Government of India
- ExerciseUK Electoral Commission · RegulatorUnited Kingdom
UK Electoral Commission pilots deepfake detection for May 2026 elections
The Commission launched a pilot with the Home Office's Accelerated Capability Environment to detect political deepfakes during the May elections in England, Scotland and Wales, with powers to refer cases to police and ask platforms to remove content.
Source: Local Government Lawyer
- WarningNational Election Commission of Korea · RegulatorSouth Korea
South Korea's election commission and police to step up deepfake crackdown before local elections
The National Election Commission and police said they would strengthen crackdowns on deepfakes and misinformation ahead of the 3 June 2026 local elections, under a law banning election deepfakes in the 90 days before a vote.
Source: The Korea Herald
- RuleSuperior Electoral Court (TSE) · RegulatorBrazil
Brazil's electoral court adopts AI rules for 2026 general elections
The TSE approved resolutions requiring disclosure of synthetic campaign content, barring new AI-generated content from 72 hours before to 24 hours after the vote, and prohibiting AI chatbots from recommending or ranking candidates.
Source: AFP via Citizen Digital
- AdvisoryViginum (SGDSN) · Security agencyFrance
French agency Viginum issues guide warning municipal candidates of information manipulation risks
Ahead of the March 2026 municipal elections, Viginum published an awareness guide for campaign teams with documented cases, including a Storm-1516 deepfake video, and advised monitoring, crisis exercises and reporting deepfakes to Arcom.
Source: Banque des Territoires (Localtis)
- WarningEuropean Parliament · LegislatureEU
European Parliament flags unlabelled AI deepfake videos in Hungary ahead of 2026 elections
In its Hungary rule-of-law report, Parliament voiced concern about unlabelled AI-generated political content, including deepfake videos on channels linked to the governing party, saying such use could mislead voters and threaten the fairness of elections.
Source: European Parliament
Verified incidents
Older than 12 months (archive): 2
How the sector gets attacked
The most frequent attack types in this sector's case files over the last 12 months, and the AI products named in them.
AI products named
Latest stories on the wire
- Paper studies black-box adversarial example attacks on machine-learning ballot classification in election systems. arXiv cs.CR
- FBI warns of AI-enabled fake fundraising and data-theft scams around the US midterm elections. 世界新聞網
- RTVE overview of US midterm disinformation, from AI-created ads to unproven fraud claims. RTVE.es