AI-generated deepfakes and manipulated content were widely spread on social media platforms during Sudan's ongoing conflict, including fake images, videos, and audio recordings attributed to political and military leaders, causing misinformation to spread and undermining trust in authentic information.
During Sudan's ongoing conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, AI-generated deepfakes became prevalent on social media platforms from April 2023 onwards. Multiple incidents occurred including a viral fake image of a burning building falsely attributed to Al-Jazeera University in Wad Madani in April 2024, an AI-generated video of the U.S. ambassador to Sudan in August 2023, deepfake content impersonating former leader Omar al-Bashir on TikTok receiving hundreds of thousands of views in October 2023, and an AI-created audio recording falsely attributed to the Sudanese Armed Forces head ordering civilian killings in March 2024 that was viewed 230,000 times. The content was created by various actors including tech-savvy individuals for satirical purposes that later morphed into disinformation, and supporters of different factions as part of psychological warfare. Social media platforms failed to effectively moderate this content despite having policies against deepfakes. Fact-checking organization Beam Reports and individual activists attempted to combat the misinformation, but faced challenges due to limited access to reliable detection tools and the increasing sophistication of AI-generated content.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to conduct large-scale disinformation campaigns, malicious surveillance, or targeted and sophisticated automated censorship and propaganda, with the aim of manipulating political processes, public opinion, and behavior.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed