NGOs urge political parties to sign anti-deepfake pledge ahead of elections

Oct 29, 2026, 6:29 PM (GMT+8)James Thompson

Three Taiwanese fact-checking organizations have urged political parties, election candidates, and campaign teams to sign a pledge against producing or sharing deepfake videos. The call comes ahead of Taiwan’s local elections on November 28, amid concerns deceptive AI-generated content could influence voters.

At a press conference held in Taipei on Thursday, October 29, the Taiwan FactCheck Center, MyGoPen, and Cofacts launched the voluntary agreement with support from nine other civic and industry organizations. The initiative draws on an Italian agreement signed by 14 political parties in 2025 and aims to proactively counter deepfakes, rather than simply debunk them or rely on legal action after they have been shared.

The pledge calls on signatories not to create or distribute AI deepfakes that falsely portray political opponents saying or doing things they haven’t said or done. It also asks that they promptly remove any such content they mistakenly share and issue a correction on the same public channel in an equally prominent way.

“Convincing deepfake videos and audio can be generated in seconds with a single click,” said Taiwan FactCheck Education Foundation Chairperson Huang Chao-hui (黃兆徽). Huang emphasized that the voluntary agreement does not prohibit AI-assisted campaigning or obvious satire, and carries no legal penalties.

The NGOs said they would monitor deepfake use in the upcoming local elections and work on a cross-party mechanism before presidential and legislative elections in 2028.

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