Pro-Russian deepfakes: Slovakia fears election interference | DW News

As people across the European Union prepare to vote for a new European Parliament in June, fears are rising that deepfakes and AI-generated disinformation campaigns could sway public opinion in the run-up to the vote.

The threat is real, as Slovakia's experience shows. Unlike any other EU member state, the small country in central Europe has already witnessed the impact of deepfakes—clips in which people appear to be doing or saying things they never did.

In the capital of Bratislava, we meet a fact-checker tasked with debunking online disinformation and an investigative reporter who traced the origins of a widely circulated deepfake. And we hear from a senior former government official who warns that his home country has become ever more vulnerable to disinformation campaigns.

Due to an error, inserts and end credits are missing in the video. Here are the people we interviewed (in the order of appearance): Veronika Frankovská, NGO Demagog.sk; Karin Kőváry Sólymos, Investigative Center of Ján Kuciak; Daniel Milo, Former Director, Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats.

Report by: Janosch Delcker

Camera: Robert Richter

Video Editing: Abdullah Mostafa

Story Editor: Alex Mänz

Executive Producer: Alexander Feist, Katharina Kroll

Chapters:

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