{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-11-14T10:49:01.717Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"mississippi","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-mississippi-senate-candidate-colom-campaign-undisclosed-ai-video-of-sen-hyde-smith-fleeing-reporters-gop-ag-complaint","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The ad claims the depiction is “based on a true story,” but does not disclose it was created using AI.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'An AI generated video shared by Colom on his social media platforms shows images of a woman generated to look like Hyde-Smith exiting what is assumed to be the U.S. Capitol.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'a 19-second AI video depicting Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith fleeing reporters'; 'At no point does the ad disclose that it was generated using AI.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Scott Colom's campaign posted on social media an AI-generated video, about 19 seconds long, showing a woman made to look like Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith confronted by reporters and running away at the U.S. Capitol; the post called it based on a true story and did not disclose that it was made with AI.","causal_attribution":"Description of the video by outlets that reported on it; the AI generation is also accepted by the campaign's defence of its use of AI (c4). The tool is not named."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'On October 1, 2026, Colom’s campaign posted a 19-second deepfake, AI-generated video to Facebook and Instagram.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"'came 33 days before the Nov. 3 election'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The state Republican Party's release says the campaign posted the video on 1 October 2026 to Facebook and Instagram; the Mississippi Free Press says it came 33 days before the 3 November election.","causal_attribution":"Date as stated by the party release and consistent with the newspaper's count of days."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Desperate candidates deploy desperate tactics.'; 'this AI video is no different'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Hyde-Smith's campaign manager objected to the video, calling it an AI video and part of a campaign of lies and deception.","causal_attribution":"The depicted senator's campaign's own response, quoted by Magnolia Tribune."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The Mississippi Republican Party asked Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch in an Oct. 22 letter to investigate whether'; 'Colom’s campaign manager Gerard Henderson defended the campaign’s use of AI to generate the video of Hyde-Smith in an Oct. 22 statement to the Mississippi Free Press.'; 'Clearly this is a joke'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'The Mississippi Republican Party is asking the Attorney General to investigate and seek injunctive relief over Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom’s use of an AI generated video'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"On 22 October 2026 the Mississippi Republican Party asked the state Attorney General to investigate whether the video violated Mississippi Code 97-13-47 and to seek an injunction; Colom's campaign manager defended the campaign's use of AI to generate the video, called the complaint an act of desperation and wrote \"Clearly this is a joke\".","causal_attribution":"The complaint's legal theory is the party's allegation; no authority has found a violation."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'I’m portraying a true story.'; 'could apply to Colom’s AI-generated video of Hyde-Smith running from reporters'; 'Fitch will have to determine whether'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Colom described the video as portraying a true story; the Mississippi Free Press notes that the law's exemption for satire or parody could apply and that the Attorney General will have to determine whether the law was broken.","causal_attribution":"Counterevidence and status: the campaign's defence and the newspaper's account of the exemption; the legal question is unresolved."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'On Friday, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch notified Scott Colom and Scott Colom for Senate to remove recent AI-generated ads posted by the campaign on their social media platforms.'; 'or else the office may file an injunction as authorized by law'; 'According to the AG, the video appears to violate State law against the use of political “deepfakes” to influence elections.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"'Fitch said she asked that the ads be removed or else the office may file an injunction as authorized by law. She also asked Colom's campaign to preserve all records related to this matter so as not to obstruct justice.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"On Friday 23 October 2026 Attorney General Lynn Fitch said she had notified Colom and his campaign that their recent AI-generated ads appeared to violate state law against the use of political deepfakes to influence elections, asked that they be removed that afternoon or her office might file an injunction, and asked the campaign to preserve all related records.","causal_attribution":"The Attorney General's own statement, relayed by two stations; her view that the ads appear to violate the law is not a court finding."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Clearly this was parody, maybe too close to home'; 'We are going to delete the post in the spirit of being good stewards of their money.'; 'I will not waste those hard-earned dollars on costly litigation'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"},{"locator":"'Clearly this was parody, maybe too close to home'; 'We are going to delete the post in the spirit of being good stewards of their money.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"Colom responded that the video was parody and that the campaign would delete the post rather than spend donors' money on costly litigation.","causal_attribution":"The candidate's own statement, relayed by two stations."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'As of 4 p.m. Friday, the AI video no longer appears on the Scott Colom For Senate Facebook page.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"},{"locator":"'As of Friday afternoon, the AI video appears to have been'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"By the afternoon of 23 October the video no longer appeared on the Scott Colom For Senate Facebook page, according to WLOX and WLBT.","causal_attribution":"Observation of the campaign's Facebook page by two Gray-owned stations, treated as one reporting chain."}],"effects":[{"label":"senator depicted in fabricated conduct in an undisclosed AI-generated campaign video weeks before an election; her campaign objected","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.mississippifreepress.org/mississippi-gop-accuses-scott-colom-of-illegally-using-ai-to-depict-cindy-hyde-smith-ahead-of-the-election/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23; no translation needed (research agent, an AI).","independence_group":"mississippi-free-press"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://magnoliatribune.com/2026/10/06/after-starting-his-campaign-with-a-fake-call-colom-shares-ai-generated-video-of-hyde-smith/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23; no translation needed (research agent, an AI).","independence_group":"magnolia-tribune"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://magnoliatribune.com/2026/10/22/msgop-claims-coloms-ai-generated-video-violates-mississippi-law/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23; no translation needed (research agent, an AI).","independence_group":"magnolia-tribune"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.wxxv25.com/mississippi-republican-party-requests-investigation-into-democrat-scott-coloms-deepfake-ai-generated-video-falsely-depicting-u-s-senator-cindy-hyde-smith/","kind":"local_tv_news","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23; the page prints the state Republican Party's press release. No translation needed (research agent, an AI).","independence_group":"msgop-oct-22-release"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.wlox.com/2026/10/23/attorney-general-asks-colom-remove-ai-generated-ads-says-it-appears-violate-state-law/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-26 (HTTP 200). WLBT report hosted on wlox.com (Gray stations share copy); relays the Attorney General's statement of Friday 23 October 2026 and the station's observation that the video appeared deleted.","independence_group":"gray-mississippi-stations"},{"id":"s6","url":"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/mississippi-ag-asks-colom-remove-160220432.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-26 (HTTP 200; Yahoo News copy of WJTV, timestamp Fri 23 October 2026 4:02 PM UTC). Relays the Attorney General's statement and the Colom campaign's response.","independence_group":"wjtv"},{"id":"s7","url":"https://www.wlox.com/2026/10/23/colom-responds-ags-request-remove-ai-generated-ads/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-26 (HTTP 200). WLOX report of 23 October 2026 with Colom's statement and the station's 4 p.m. observation of the campaign Facebook page.","independence_group":"gray-mississippi-stations"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use"],"contexts":["elections","public_life"],"unknowns":["Which AI tool generated the video.","Whether the video was also removed from Instagram or other platforms after the Facebook post was deleted.","Whether the Attorney General takes any further step after the deletion; no injunction, charge or court ruling is reported.","How many people viewed the video."],"geography":{"basis":"The video was posted by a Mississippi U.S. Senate campaign about a sitting U.S. senator, and the complaint went to the Mississippi Attorney General (Mississippi Free Press, Magnolia Tribune). No court is involved.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published because outlets that reported on the video describe it as an AI-generated depiction of the senator, the maker's campaign defended its use of AI, and the depicted senator's campaign objected while her party filed a complaint with the Attorney General. Updated with the Attorney General's 23 October request that the AI-generated ads be removed as apparently unlawful and the campaign's deletion of the Facebook post, both relayed by Mississippi stations. The illegality view is attributed to the party and the Attorney General, and the campaign's parody and true-story defences are kept.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-26"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The outlets describe the campaign's video as AI-generated, showing a woman generated to look like the senator running from reporters, and the Mississippi Free Press reports that Colom's campaign manager defended the campaign's use of AI to generate it. The AI-generated likeness is the material the senator's campaign objected to and the subject of the party's complaint to the Attorney General. The generating tool is not named.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["depicted_or_impersonated"]},"name":"Mississippi Senate candidate posted undisclosed AI video of Sen. Hyde-Smith fleeing reporters; campaign deleted it after AG said it appeared to break state law","summary":"In early October 2026 the campaign of Scott Colom, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Mississippi, posted on social media a 19-second AI-generated video showing a woman made to look like his opponent, Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, running from a crowd of reporters at the U.S. Capitol and getting into a car. Local outlets report that the post called it \"based on a true story\" and did not disclose that it was made with AI. Hyde-Smith's campaign manager called it an AI video and part of a campaign of \"lies and deception\". On 22 October the Mississippi Republican Party asked the state Attorney General to investigate whether the video broke a state law against knowingly spreading a deceptive AI depiction of a candidate within 90 days of an election, and to seek an injunction. Colom's campaign manager defended the campaign's use of AI and called the complaint desperate; the law exempts satire and parody. On Friday 23 October Attorney General Lynn Fitch said she had notified the campaign that its AI-generated ads appeared to violate the state law against political deepfakes and asked that they be removed that afternoon, or her office might seek an injunction. Colom called the video parody but said the campaign would delete the post rather than spend donors' money on litigation, and by that afternoon two Mississippi stations reported that it no longer appeared on the campaign's Facebook page. No court has ruled on whether the video broke the law.","incidentDate":"2026-10-01","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2026-10-06","aiSystem":"Unnamed AI video generator used by the Colom campaign to produce a 19-second video of a likeness of the senator (as described by Mississippi outlets)","aiProduct":"Unidentified video tool","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["reputational_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A senator was shown in fabricated conduct in an undisclosed AI-generated campaign video posted by her opponent's campaign weeks before an election; her campaign objected, her party sought an Attorney General investigation, and the campaign deleted the post after the Attorney General said it appeared to violate state law (reported).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the senator depicted in the video, whose campaign objected (Magnolia Tribune, 6 October). Exact 1. Viewers are an audience and are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-MS","platformType":"other","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.mississippifreepress.org/mississippi-gop-accuses-scott-colom-of-illegally-using-ai-to-depict-cindy-hyde-smith-ahead-of-the-election/","primarySourceLabel":"Mississippi Free Press, 22 October 2026: Mississippi GOP accuses Scott Colom of illegally using AI to depict Cindy Hyde-Smith","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-23T03:10:24.61695+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-26T03:04:36.827934+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["political-deepfake","election","ai-video","depicted-or-impersonated","mississippi"]}]}