Former Singapore President Halimah Yacob Slams Dirty Tactics After Deepfake AI Video Targets Her Ahead Of Singapore General Election

Singapore’s former president Halimah Yacob says she will lodged a police report after encoutering a deepfake video of her falsely portraying her making critical remarks about the government.

In a Facebook post on April 15, Halimah clarified that the video shows her making “certain negative statements” about the government weas competely false.

Halimah emphasized that the video is entirely fabricated, stating that deepfake technology was used to mimic both her appearance and voice.

This comes after it was announced that Singaporeans will be heading to the polls on May 3, after President Tharman Shanmugaratnam dissolved the city-state's parliament on Tuesday. Mdm Halimah Yacob expressed

"This is scary—how AI is being used to influence voters during this critical period."

While Mdm Hamimah didn't accuse any party of creating the Deepfake video, but she appealed to all political groups to compete honourably in the upcoming General Election.

"Let's maintain some decorum, decency and fairness, regardless of which side you are on. Don't resort to dirty tactics like this.. It's not a one-off boxing match."

In the past, deepfakes of current Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong have also been used by investment scammers.

Last year, Singapore passed a bill to prohibit the publishing of digitally generated or manipulated content that realistically depicts a candidate saying or doing something that he or she did not. The new law will apply from the issuance of the Writ to the close of polling on Polling day.