FactCheck: AI-Generated Audio Targets Iraqi Politicians Ahead of Elections
As Iraq gears up for the parliamentary elections scheduled for November 11, 2025, the political landscape is rife with tension and accusations. Amid this backdrop, Annahar’s FactCheck investigated a circulating audio recording allegedly featuring a member of the State of Law coalition, Osman al-Shibani.
The Alleged Recording
The audio, which has been widely shared on social media platforms, purportedly contains disparaging remarks by al-Shibani about former coalition member Alia Nassif, who has since joined the coalition led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. The recording threatens legal action and media campaigns against Nassif. However, the claims are false, as the recording was generated using artificial intelligence.
Key Findings
Annahar’s FactCheck’s investigation revealed several critical points:
- AI Generation: The audio contains unnatural speech patterns, including errors in pronunciation, and inconsistencies in tone, indicating it was generated by AI. For example, the phrase “Security Cyber group, come privately without trouble” sounds unnatural, as does the general tone with illogical interruptions between words.
- Technical Analysis: A technical analysis of the audio, conducted using the Detect Resemble AI tool, confirmed the recording as fabricated.
- Lack of Verification: The recording has not been reported by any media outlets, nor has it been confirmed by any credible sources.
Context and Implications
The circulation of this fabricated audio comes at a time of intense political and media competition between political blocs and parties in Iraq, especially with the upcoming elections. Social media platforms are witnessing a wave of mutual accusations between supporters of various political parties, particularly following the stances of political leaders.
Additional Incidents
In a related incident, the Jim Sin platform recently interviewed the leader of the State of Law coalition, Nouri al-Maliki, and published it on YouTube. Subsequently, the platform announced the deletion of the episode from the platform, expressing its condemnation of the action, which occurred following a report from an official source. The platform later stated that it would pursue legal procedures to identify the entity behind the deletion of the episode.
The spread of such misinformation, especially in the form of AI-generated content, poses a significant challenge to the integrity of the electoral process and public discourse. The use of AI to create deepfakes and manipulate audio recordings can undermine trust in media and political figures, potentially influencing voters and damaging the democratic process. This FactCheck highlights the importance of verifying information and the need for greater media literacy in the face of increasingly sophisticated disinformation campaigns.
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