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Latest / Media, elections and online safety

IncidentMediaGovernmentSpainConfirmed

Spanish opposition party launches deepfake video in election campaign

See how this story connects

Source: The Guardian

Spain’s People’s party released an AI-generated deepfake video on social media this week showing artificial likenesses of people linked to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party appearing to admit to wrongdoing. The video, which had nearly 2 million views by Friday, used deepfakes of Begoña Gómez (Sánchez’s wife) and former Socialist president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, among others. It carried a tiny, nearly transparent note that it was AI-generated. On Friday Leire Díez, a former Socialist party member whose likeness was used, filed a court complaint asking the party to take the video down.

Why it matters

Spain holds a general election on 29 November, and digital transformation minister Óscar López said anyone not used to AI could easily confuse the video, which carried only a tiny AI label, with reality.

When
23 Oct 2026
ID
WTA-N-2026-0383
Where
Spain
Who
People’s party, Socialist party; Pedro Sánchez, Begoña Gómez, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Óscar López, Leire Díez
System
AI-generated deepfake video
Operator
People’s Party (Spain)
Type
election video with deepfakes of people linked to the Socialist party, carrying a nearly transparent AI note
Status
published; nearly 2 million views; disclosed by The Guardian · Incident ledger

Summary by wheresthe.ai, from The Guardian. Checked against the source on 25 Oct 2026.

Read the original at The Guardian

Source copy: download the page as saved on 23 Oct 2026 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.

Cite this story

WTA-N-2026-0383: “Spanish opposition party launches deepfake video in election campaign.” wheresthe.ai, 23 Oct 2026. https://wheresthe.ai/d/es-spanish-opposition-party-launches-deepfake-video-in-elect-2026-10/ (source: The Guardian).

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