Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan deepfake video — Nov 2026

During the Melaka state election, Barisan Nasional deputy chairman Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan was targeted by a deceptive AI-generated video. The manipulated content falsely depicted the politician promising a payment of RM25,000 to voters, forcing him to issue warnings to the public regarding the fabrication.

What happened

The incident involved the use of generative AI tools to create a synthetic video that mimicked the appearance and voice of Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan. The video was disseminated on TikTok, a platform where such content has become increasingly prevalent. By leveraging high-resolution footage from the politician's public press conferences and livestreams, bad actors were able to synthesize a convincing clip that appeared to show him making a significant financial pledge to the electorate. This incident highlights the growing trend of using off-the-shelf AI tools to produce misleading political content, which can be created in minutes using only a short audio sample and basic hardware. The spread of such deepfakes during compressed election cycles poses a significant challenge to information integrity, as the content often reaches voters through closed messaging groups before it can be flagged or removed by platform moderators.