Associated Incidents
Accounts belonging to users linked to the Casa Rosada (the White House) launched a dirty campaign hours before the Buenos Aires City elections, using fake news and fake videos of Mauricio Macri and Silvia Lospennato, the candidate for Buenos Aires Primero legislator. The Pro Party (PRO) filed a complaint with the electoral tribunal alleging that it was a maneuver to "induce voting" through "deception" and in favor of Manuel Adorni, the La Libertad Avanza (LLA) candidate, during the electoral ban.
On Saturday afternoon, a video began to go viral on X (formerly Twitter) and was reposted by several libertarian accounts, including that of Daniel Parisini, known as "Gordo Dan."
The leader of "Las Fuerzas del Cielo," who led a column of activists in the Manuel Adorni shutdown, retweeted a fake video in which a figure emulating former President Mauricio Macri says he will support the candidacy of Manuel Adorni, the main candidate for La Libertad Avanza. It was a lie concocted as part of a dirty campaign to harm the PRO candidate, Silvia Lospennato.
Macri himself reacted on social media to the dissemination of this content. "Hours before the election, a crude video generated with artificial intelligence was published on X. It shows a credible recreation of me making statements I never made about our list. This is an attempt at electoral fraud, seeking to confuse the electorate using devices that could be interpreted as real by the audience," he began his statement.
The former president then spoke of "legal action" and reiterated his support for Lospennato.
"What happened is very serious," María Eugenia Vidal, a representative and campaign manager for the PRO party, told LA NACION. She explained that accounts affiliated with La Libertad Avanza "violated electoral law and usurped Mauricio Macri's identity using artificial intelligence to spread false news." Consequently, the former governor stated that they will file a complaint with the electoral court.
After the dissemination of the fake video of Mauricio Macri, another similar production began circulating, this time featuring Silvia Lospennato. In this new piece, generated using artificial intelligence, the PRO candidate is shown announcing her withdrawal from the electoral race and asking her followers to vote for Manuel Adorni.
"We cannot allow Kirchnerism to win in the city of Buenos Aires, which is why, together with Mauricio Macri's leadership, I decided to withdraw my candidacy," the candidate can be heard saying in the fake video being spread on social media.
Candidate Silvia Lospennato maintained that the dissemination of this type of content constitutes an "electoral crime" that "seeks to confuse voters." In a post on social media, she reaffirmed her campaign and wrote: "Liars and those who do not respect the rules are defeated with votes and decency."
In addition, the MileiEmperador account, which many attribute to presidential strategist Santiago Caputo, shared another post containing a fake montage that simulates a newspaper article from LA NACION.
This montage, which is not true, displays the title of a fake news story: "Mauricio Macri canceled Silvia Lospennato's candidacy in Buenos Aires City." The post retweeted by the account attributed to Caputo is from @PatricioVogel1, which at the time of this article's publication had only 18 followers. Even the byline of LA NACION journalist Matías Moreno was doctored.
LA NACION did not publish any article like the one these users spread. That's where the falsehood comes from. It was a plot concocted with electoral intent, also part of the dirty campaign orchestrated the day before the vote.
Another account affiliated with La Libertad Avanza, @TommyShelby_30, even shared an image that pretends to be a screenshot from the LN+ channel and shows something that was never broadcast.
It shows journalists Hugo Macchiavelli and Roberto Funes Ugarte next to a fake video of Macri with a supposed statement that the former president never made. In other words, another fake montage.
Reactions
These posts sparked condemnation from various representatives of the PRO party. Vidal led the responses to the aforementioned libertarian accounts and spoke of a dirty campaign. She addressed Parisini (Gordo Dan) and the account attributed to Santiago Caputo directly.
"More than 500 posts by Milei against the PRO (Pro), insults, attacks, fake news. They blamed Lospennato, they fabricated that Macri made a pact with Cristina. Now @MileiEmperador and @GordoDan_ are lying, saying that MM (Mauricio Macri) supports Adorni. And then Milei cries dirty talk? I'm on Lospennato's side in life. Always on the side of the truth," reads one of Vidal's posts.
"It seems they don't like freedom of expression that much," tweeted the @MileiEmperador account attributed to Santiago Caputo minutes later.
Another voice speaking out against the videos was Civic Coalition candidate for Buenos Aires City legislator Paula Oliveto. On her X account, she expressed her opposition to the dissemination of the videos. "We firmly reject any maneuver that attempts to confuse, influence, or manipulate the vote of the city's residents, such as those we have recently seen on social media," she wrote.
Pro denounced a campaign in favor of La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances)
The circulation of the apocryphal video featuring the image and voice of Mauricio Macri prompted the filing of a formal complaint by Ezequiel Jarvis and Matías Giampaolo, representatives of the Buenos Aires Primero electoral alliance, which represents Pro in the elections.
In a document submitted to the Buenos Aires Electoral Tribunal, the leaders warned that it was a "deliberate maneuver to induce people to vote" through "deception" and during the electoral ban.