Shallowfake of Kamala Harris Speech Viewed 5 Million Times

A faked video of Vice President Kamala Harris has gone viral, attracting nearly 5 million views on social media. The footage shows her seemingly make rambling remarks riffing on the word "today."

The edited footage appears to be an example of a shallowfake: unlike a deepfake, which utilizes artificial intelligence to manipulate a medium, these make use of video editing software to change the source material.

Social-media users appeared split over whether the video was real or fake. Such doctored videos have emerged as part of the explosion of new technology and can be used to create sources of disinformation, as well as revenge porn.

One video had received over 4 million views as of 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday. Others, for which Twitter had not yet provided the additional context that it is fake, had accumulated a combined 878,000 views as of then.

In the video, Harris appears to say: "Today is today, and yesterday is today yesterday. Tomorrow will be today tomorrow, so live today so the future today will be as the past today, as it is tomorrow."

The audio used in the shallowfake originates from a TikTok user who impersonates Harris. In a video that has attracted 862,000 views, she recited her "Kamala Harris riddle." She has since reposted the doctored video to her own feed.

The footage used came from remarks that the vice president and proposed running mate for Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election had made at Howard University in Washington D.C. on April 25. In it, Harris told students to stand up for abortion rights, as well as those regarding voting and LGBTQ+ issues.

However, in what conservative commentators ridiculed as a case of "word salad," at one point in her speech, Harris said: "I think it's very important, as you have heard from so many incredible leaders for us at every moment in time—and certainly this one—to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present, and to be able to contextualize it, to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment as it relates not only to the past but the future."

Newsweek approached the White House via email for comment on Tuesday.

Harris has previously faced mockery for speeches that have been seen as repetitive or tautological.

In March, she gave a speech at the White House in which she said: "During Women's History Month, we celebrate and we honor the women who made history throughout history."

Last May, speaking about mental health and wellness, Harris said: "You know, when we talk about our children—I know for this group, we all believe that when we talk about the children of the community, they are a children of the community."

Since rising in popularity in 2018, shallowfakes have been used to target politicians and public figures with misinformation, some of which have been edited convincingly.

Legal experts are conflicted about what steps can be taken against such videos and images, according to a 2020 article in the Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts. While some argue that they are protected by the first amendment as a creative invention or parody, others say they could in some cases face claims of defamation or copyright infringement.

In February, a deep-faked video purporting to show Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren saying that "allowing Republicans to vote could threaten the integrity of the election" also went viral on Twitter.