Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's political aide Balazs Orban published an unlabeled AI-generated deepfake video on Facebook showing opposition leader Peter Magyar falsely claiming he would cut pensions, prompting Magyar to file criminal defamation charges.
On Tuesday, Balazs Orban, chief political aide to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, published a 38-second video on Facebook that purported to show opposition leader Peter Magyar saying he would cut pensions and tax some benefits. Magyar's centre-right Tisza party leads most opinion polls ahead of elections due in April 2026. Magyar alleged the video was a deepfake generated by artificial intelligence and said he would file a criminal complaint against Balazs Orban for defamation. The video was not labeled as AI-generated, though the European Union's AI Act will mandate such disclosures when it takes effect in 2026. In the video, Magyar seemingly says the current pension system was too generous and that some pensions needed to be taxed. Balazs Orban accused Magyar of wanting to 'silence those who uncover their real intentions' but did not immediately respond to Reuters questions. Analysts said the incident risked widening Hungary's deep political divisions, with one expert noting the danger of videos showing politicians saying things they never actually said. The incident occurred less than six months before a parliamentary election that could be Viktor Orban's toughest since entering office in 2010.
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.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
