By Thapelo Molefe
The spread of fake news and artificial intelligence (AI)-generated political content is raising concerns ahead of South Africa’s 4 November local government elections, with experts warning that misleading information could confuse voters and undermine confidence in the country’s democracy.
The warning came during a virtual roundtable hosted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) on Wednesday.
Researchers, fact-checkers, media monitors and communications specialists discussed ways to combat misinformation during elections.
Africa Check deputy chief editor Cayley Clifford cautioned against focusing exclusively on AI-generated material, saying much of the false information circulating in South Africa involved genuine photographs and videos shared out of context.
“South Africa’s disinformation landscape is doing just fine, thriving even, without AI and most of what we see circulating when it comes to false information is not artificially generated,” Clifford said.
“It is real
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