SEOUL: A picture of the candidate kneeling before a Mao Zedong memorial? rumor claims that US President Donald Trump supported a running mate? No accurate, simply illustrations of South Korea’s election-related misinformation. There have been a lot of false accusations online as the state prepares to vote on a new president for Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached over a fabricated martial law charter. What are the assertions? Many of the allegations center on foreign intervention, tapping into local concerns about China’s interference, or fabricating assistance for the conservative camp from the United States. One of the most well-known lies that has been made online suggested Chinese citizens are using the system to throw fictitious ballots while using one of the most popular ones. As long as they have an email address,” Even foreigners can vote”! read a widely circulated article that AFP Fact Check dissected. Who is targeted? Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the opposition and pioneer for the election, is a frequent target for propaganda. Some claims center on his alleged affiliation to Beijing, which fits into a long-running myth that liberal candidates are seen as sympathetic to, or even controlled by, China. For instance, a Mao monument was depicted in Lee’s face mask with the Chinese symbol on it while a photo was discredited by AFP editors. According to Choi Jin-bong, a professor of internet connections at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul, this pattern reflects the perception that many citizens are less conned by claims that politicians are pro-North Korea. In light of the worsening US-China conflicts, he told AFP, “it is now the state that progressives are submissive to China.” What about the conservative candidate’s claim that these claims are politically important even when they are false? The deception about North Korean conservatives tends to concentrate on their relationships to the US. Trump’s political campaign announcement was supported by doctor-generated images of former prime minister Han Duck-soo. Has since withdrawn from the race after a failed attempt to become the party’s conservative nominee ( PPP ). Another rumor involved a well-known right-wing YouTuber telling his 1.5 million users that Kim Moon-soo had been endorsed by the Pentagon. According to US Forces Korea, it was” fully misleading.” However, even if the claims are blatantly misleading, Lee Jun-han, a professor of politics at Incheon National University, told AFP that they “remain compelling because they benefit social stars.” What about AI? They “grow each side together through narratives that perform on worry, identity, and outdoor influence” by tapping into Korea’s divided landscape and its political anxieties. A deepfake videos from April showed Lee joking about eating grilled chicken while purportedly ending a hunger strike that he took in 2023 to rally the policies of then-president Yoon. A true picture of Lee in a hospital sleep was used to create the picture, which was widely shared in South Korea’s right-wing online community. A number of indicators of AI manipulation were identified by an AFP research, including warped system parts, uneven surroundings, and disappearing background elements. The video was false, but it confirmed a previous theory that Lee’s protest was performance-based. According to Song Kyeong-jae, a republic and technology specialist at Sangji University,” AI-driven propaganda poses a major threat to democracy by obstructing citizens ‘ access to reliable knowledge.” ” When decisions are made based on controlled information, they are inevitable, and the social and political effects that follow may be deep.” Falsified numbers Other accusations have been made that made false representations of pre-election polling, which persistently showed Lee leading his conservative rivals. PPP prospect Kim was allegedly leading Lee in recent polls, according to a popular graphical that was shared times before early voting started. The original cause evidently listed the survey’s dates, and the numbers actually came from January and February. These were purposefully left out to deceive people into believing the outcomes were recent. Lee held a five-point direct over the rest of the May elections that were released.
