Social media site X has taken decisive action against a network involved in smearing UK politicians with doctored clips, including Labour’s Wes Streeting. The platform has removed several accounts and posts following a BBC investigation.
This investigation, part of the BBC’s Undercover Voter project, exposed a group of accounts creating and sharing deepfake images ahead of the general election. These accounts posted misleading comments to make the clips appear authentic.
This marks the first time X has responded to allegations raised in over 12 months. Previous attempts to contact X yielded no response. Elon Musk bought the social media company, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022 and implemented various changes, including mass job losses, particularly in the communications team. At one point, emails to X’s press office triggered an automatic reply featuring a poo emoji. The current response states, “Busy now, please check back later”.
An X spokesperson told the BBC: “X has in place a range of policies and features to protect the conversation surrounding elections. We will label content that violates our synthetic and manipulated media policy and remove accounts engaged in platform manipulation or other serious violations of our rules.”
While some of the fake clips and comments shared by this network were clearly absurd and satirical, others falsely portrayed candidates saying politically damaging things. The network of X users worked to make these videos appear believable, accumulating tens of thousands of views.
One post included a doctored video of Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, on the BBC’s Politics Live show. The footage was manipulated to make it sound like Mr. Streeting said “silly woman” under his breath while the presenter discussed politician Diane Abbott. However, Mr. Streeting never said those words. The clip was shared by a user called Men for Wes, who expressed outrage in the comments at the “really nasty people” in the Labour Party. Other users endorsed the clip as real. Mr. Streeting denounced it as fake.
Several hours after being shared, the doctored clips of Mr. Streeting were labelled as fake by X’s reader-operated fact-check service. Faked clips of Labour candidate Luke Akehurst, Keir Starmer, and Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage were also posted by these accounts.
Following the investigation, the Men for Wes account was suspended by X, and the videos from its account are no longer visible. Some other profiles have also been removed. A spokesperson from X also highlighted that more than “500,000 contributors in 70 countries” participate in Community Notes, X’s reader-operated fact-check service. The company is supporting efforts to increase digital literacy in the UK during the election period.
