AI-Generated Fake Video of Tsai Ing-wen Used in Political Disinformation Campaign

What happened

A video circulated on Facebook in July 2025 purporting to show former President Tsai Ing-wen calling for voters to support a recall vote on July 26. A campaign staffer confirmed the video was edited from a five-year-old clip from Tsai's 2020 presidential campaign, with the phrase '7月26日同意罷免' (July 26, approve recall) added at the end.

Writer Yan Ze-ya identified the video as fabricated and attributed it to Chinese Communist Party cognitive warfare operations. She noted the Facebook page that posted it, 'Taiwan Speaks Out: Say What You Have to Say,' contained multiple AI-generated videos with incoherent content and fake accounts using unnatural Taiwan-accented Chinese.

Reported impact

The fabricated video attracted over 10,000 likes and was shared over 1,000 times before being removed. Security units stated they were monitoring the cognitive operations and warned the public to avoid trusting videos circulating online.

Index analysis

Taiwan AI Lab founder Tu Yi-jing identified the fake page as impersonating Tsai to gather followers with intent to sow division. The operation appeared designed to manipulate voters ahead of the scheduled July 26 recall votes.

Governance controls

The Facebook page issued a statement claiming the video was 'picked up from the river' and deleted the disputed video. Taiwan's security units indicated they were aware of the cognitive warfare operations.

Classification

Organizations

Taiwan Security Units (regulator), Tsai Ing-wen (victim)

Category

Misinformation and synthetic media

Industry

Media, social platforms and marketing

Country

Taiwan

Harm status

Potential harm

Intent

Intentional

Timing

Unknown

Harm types

Reputational

Harmed

General public, Government

Failure modes

Deepfake video, Manipulation or dark pattern

Consequences

Content removal

AI systems

Video generation AI

Sources and evidence