Incident 1258: Purported Deepfake Mimicking RTÉ Broadcast Falsely Announced Irish Presidential Candidate Catherine Connolly's Withdrawal

Description: A purported deepfake video circulated online that is alleged to have falsely depicted Irish presidential candidate Catherine Connolly announcing her withdrawal from the race. The clip reportedly mimicked an RTÉ news broadcast and spread across social media before being reported to the Electoral Commission. Connolly reportedly condemned the video as a malicious attempt to mislead voters and undermine democratic trust.

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Incident Stats

Incident ID
1258
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2025-10-22
Editors
Daniel Atherton
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'Disgraceful' deep-fake AI video condemned by presidential candidate
bbc.com · 2025

Irish presidential candidate Catherine Connolly has lodged a formal complaint with the Electoral Commission over a "malicious deep-fake" AI video.

The video appeared online on Tuesday night and showed an AI version of Connolly appearing to …

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Deepfake AI video depicting Catherine Connolly quitting presidential race removed by Meta
irishtimes.com · 2025

Catherine Connolly has condemned an AI generated deepfake video that falsely showed her withdrawing from the presidential election.

The video, designed to look like a RTÉ News bulletin, was viewed almost 30,000 times on Facebook before it w…

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Deepfake video of Irish presidential candidate rocks campaign
politico.eu · 2025

The Irish presidential election campaign has been disrupted by an artificial intelligence-generated deepfake video of candidate Catherine Connolly announcing her “withdrawal” from the race.

“It is with great regret that I announce the withd…

Variants

A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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