Israeli Election Committee Requires AI-Generated Political Ads to Be Clearly Marked

Noam Solberg, chair of Israel's Election Committee, ordered Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism party, to remove a campaign video created using artificial intelligence. The video falsely depicted former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot shaking hands with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas. Solberg ruled that the AI-generated segment, which appeared realistic but showed an event that never occurred, could mislead voters by implying a political connection between Eisenkot and Mansour Abbas that does not exist.

This decision followed two petitions filed against Smotrich's video. Solberg emphasized that such misleading content violates Section 13 of the Elections Law (Campaign Methods), which prohibits unfair interference with another party's campaign. Although a label indicating the video was AI-edited was added, Solberg found it insufficient because it was not always clearly visible on Facebook, thus failing to prevent potential voter deception.

Consequently, Smotrich and his party were instructed to remove the video from all their social media accounts. Moving forward, the Election Committee mandates that all AI-generated political advertisements must be explicitly labeled to avoid misleading the public.