Berlin, 21.08.2024 The DRPR reprimands the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Göppingen district association, for deliberately deceiving the public through the misleading and unlabelled use of artificial intelligence in its social media communication.
Specifically, the DRPR accuses the AfD Göppingen of having used photos in at least two posts on Instagram and Facebook that were created with AI and show non-existent people. These fictitious people claim to have become members of the AfD and explain their motivation for joining. Neither the images themselves nor the accompanying texts contained any indication that they were AI-generated content. Research by various journalistic media confirms this approach.
The DRPR sees this approach as a clear violation of the principles of truthfulness, transparency and clear labelling laid down in the German Communications Code and the DRPR guidelines on the use of AI. In the opinion of the DRPR, the depiction of non-real people and the deliberate concealment of the artificial image generation mislead the public and are aimed at manipulating voters’ opinions.
Despite several requests for comment on the events, the AfD Göppingen has allowed the deadlines set as part of the complaints procedure to pass and has not responded.
The DRPR is extremely critical of this form of non-transparent and manipulative communication and calls on all those active in political communication to refrain from portraying fictitious persons and to handle AI-generated content responsibly and transparently. “Truthful and transparent communication by political parties is essential for opinion-forming and public trust in democratic processes. Therefore, AI-generated content, especially in the visual field, should be used by parties with caution and labelled transparently for the layperson,” explains the DRPR.
You can download the press release here.
You can find the detailed reasons for the Council’s judgement here.
