How did misinformation and foreign interference shape the ‘super year’ of elections?

More people than ever before were called to the ballot boxes in 2024, as democracies worldwide raised their guard against information manipulation.

Transcript

00:00How did misinformation impact the election super year?

00:08More people were called to the ballot boxes in 2024 than in any other year in election history.

00:15Here are five elections where we saw the disruptive impact of AI-generated misinformation and foreign interference.

00:23In February, Pakistan's imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan proclaimed victory in the country's general election

00:30using an AI-generated speech that cloned his own voice.

00:35Independent candidates backed by Khan won most seats in the election, but they were ultimately kept out of power.

00:42In June, there were fears of foreign interference in the European elections.

00:47A pro-Kremlin hacker network attacked the websites of three Dutch political parties on the first day of voting.

00:54Moldovans voted in presidential elections and the referendum on EU membership in October.

01:00Russia spent as much as 100 million euros in total to undermine the electoral process, according to Moldovan authorities,

01:07including through direct bank transfers to buy voters' anti-EU votes.

01:14During the US presidential ballot in November, a series of bomb threats were reported in five battleground states,

01:20forcing polling stations to be evacuated.

01:23The FBI said the bomb alerts could be traced back to Russian domains.

01:27And the second round of Romania's presidential election was dramatically cancelled in November

01:33after the country's constitutional court cited problems with the legality of the electoral process.

01:39It came after a little-known ultra-nationalist candidate, Kalin Djordjescu,

01:44swept to victory in the first round after running a successful TikTok campaign.

01:49A state actor, presumably Russia, was behind that campaign, according to declassified Romanian intelligence.