Two Senate Race Videos Removed After Posting, but Copies Reach Hundreds of Shares

Videos aimed at Senate candidates Sherrod Brown and James Talarico were removed from X after posting, but copies remained available online Tuesday with hundreds of shares. The clips appear to use artificial intelligence to spread false claims about the candidates during the final stretch of voting.

One video depicts a news broadcast and includes a photograph of Haya Akbik, who interned for Brown several years ago. Brown, a Democrat, is running against Republican Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio. Akbik told the Associated Press that any claims attributed to her in the clip are "completely made up." "It's my name, it's my reputation, making this allegation, and it's just completely false," she said. "And it harms the senator, someone else, in the process."

The second video presents itself as a direct-to-camera statement from a former student of Talarico, who is running against Republican Ken Paxton for a Senate seat in Texas. Talarico spokesperson JT Ennis said in a statement that critics are using "AI deepfakes, foreign bots, and conspiracy theories" because they cannot beat Talarico with the truth.

X removed the initial posts and suspended the users who shared them for violating platform rules. Copies of both videos were still circulating online Tuesday.

Darren Linvill, a Clemson University professor and media forensics expert, identified similarities between these clips and material from a Russian network known as Storm-1516. That network targeted former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz two years ago. Linvill found that the accounts sharing the recent videos had also shared earlier Storm-1516 content.

Hany Farid, a Dartmouth College professor who studies AI-generated video, said his analysis showed both clips were likely generated or manipulated using the technology. Farid described the video targeting Brown as a "fairly low-tech fake." He said the video concerning Talarico is likely AI-generated and "is consistent with previous disinformation campaigns released close to Election Day."

Akbik said the video using her name and photograph shows why Congress should regulate "AI slop on the internet." She called the clip's claims "so damaging."

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also did not respond to a request for comment.