Microsoft-backed True Media is positioning itself as an authority on AI deepfakes ahead of the 2024 election. The tech giant is advocating for stronger regulations to tackle AI-generated disinformation, but scrutiny of its projects reveals involvement from figures tied to the controversial Election Integrity Partnership, which was linked to censoring Republican speech during the 2020 election.
Microsoft board member Reid Hoffman and former Daily Show host Trevor Noah are promoting True Media’s campaign to “combat deepfakes”. In an interview on Microsoft’s podcast The Prompt, Noah and True Media CEO Oren Etzioni emphasized the risks AI poses to election integrity, with Etzioni claiming that Americans “cannot figure this stuff out on their own.” Their efforts, however, have drawn criticism for echoing previous narratives used to justify top-down control of online content.
True Media’s advisory board includes figures like Kate Starbird and Renee DiResta, both central to the Election Integrity Partnership, which collaborated with the Department of Homeland Security to monitor and suppress speech ahead of the 2020 election. Starbird’s Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington and DiResta’s Stanford Internet Observatory have been linked to federal efforts to censor online “disinformation,” with America First Legal accusing Starbird’s lab of working with the Biden administration to suppress political dissent.
The resurfacing of these experts, now focusing on AI deepfakes, raises alarms about potential censorship disguised as election protection. Regarding disinformation, Hoffman, Noah, and Microsoft have questionable histories. As recently revealed by the NY Post, former Daily Show host Trevor Noah has quietly promoted Microsoft’s policies and products on his podcast without disclosing his ties to the company, misleading the public about his impartiality.
Reid Hoffman’s top political advisor, Dmitri Mehlhorn, has propagated conspiracy theories, even suggesting that reporters explore the idea that a possible assassination attempt on Trump “was encouraged and maybe even staged so Trump could get the photos and benefit from the backlash,” which Mehlhorn called “a classic Russian tactic.”
Microsoft partner NewsGuard, fueled by similar “Russiagate” hysteria, had a co-founder who claimed that the 2020 Hunter Biden laptop story was a “hoax perpetrated by the Russians.”
In 2017, Hoffman admitted to funding “fake Twitter accounts with Russian-sounding names” and having them follow Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, an effort described by the campaign’s own reports, as published by the New York Times, as a “false flag” attempt to discredit Moore.
