Millions of People See Fake Videos of Politicians Before Elections

A shocking new study found that about 16.5 million adults in the United Kingdom saw fake videos or pictures of politicians online before recent local elections. One in three voters said they saw these fake materials, called deepfakes, during the month before the May elections. The study was done by a research group called Demos between April 30 and May 6, 2026. Experts are now warning that this could create serious problems for democracy in the UK.

Deepfakes are videos, pictures, or audio recordings that are created using computers to make people appear to say or do things they never actually did. The technology uses artificial intelligence to make these fake materials look very real. Many people have trouble telling the difference between real content and deepfakes. This makes deepfakes very dangerous for elections because they can spread false information about candidates.

The study found that one in six people saw political deepfakes more than five times during the month before the elections. This means many voters were seeing lots of fake content about politicians. Most of the deepfakes showed politicians in a negative way, which could unfairly damage their reputation. The research showed that 56 percent of the fake content portrayed politicians badly, with 28 percent being very negative.