PP releases deepfake campaign video

Spain's conservative People's Party posted an AI video on October twenty-first featuring deepfakes of figures linked to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialists confessing to wrongdoing. The election is November twenty-ninth.

What the video shows

An AI version of Sánchez's wife, Begoña Gómez, talks about getting a university post through her husband's job.A deepfake of former Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero discusses hiding jewellery.

The video goes viral

By Friday the video had nearly two million views.The PP posted it on X with the words Sí, son zurdos, quoting Sánchez saying he was left-handed.An AI label appeared in tiny, nearly transparent text.

“Sí, son zurdos”

Government and legal response

Óscar López, Spain's digital transformation minister, called the video a colossal lie.On Friday, former Socialist party member Leire Díez filed a court complaint against the PP, reportedly accusing them of defamation and digital identity theft.

Legal experts split on legality

Most of nine legal experts told El País the video was not illegal, marked as AI-made and political satire.But Juan Antonio Lascuraín said legality was one question; ethics another.

“Given the context, everyone knows those people didn't say those things.”

PP defends the video as satire

Borja Sémper of the PP told reporters the video was not meant to deceive. He said it was a way of using digital tools to highlight Socialist hypocrisy, not malicious intent to make people believe…

“If there had been malicious intent to make people believe that the characters who appear there are real, then we'd have a problem.”