Hungary’s opposition leader to file criminal complaint over alleged deepfake video

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BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar said on Wednesday that he would file a criminal complaint against Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief political aide for publishing what Magyar said was a deepfake video of him generated by artificial intelligence.

Magyar’s centre-right Tisza party leads most opinion polls ahead of elections due in April 2026.

Aide Balazs Orban, who is not related to the prime minister, published a 38-second video on Facebook on Tuesday that purported to show Magyar saying that he would cut pensions.

The allegedly AI-generated video was published less than six months before a parliamentary election that could be Viktor Orban’s toughest since he entered office in 2010, with the economy stagnating.

AIDE ACCUSES MAGYAR OF TRYING TO SILENCE THE TRUTH

In the video, Magyar seemingly says, among other things, that the current pension system was too generous and that some pensions needed to be taxed.

The video was not labeled as AI-generated. The European Union’s AI Act will mandate such disclosures when it takes effect in 2026.

Magyar said in a statement that he would file a criminal complaint against Balazs Orban, accusing him of creating and publishing a fake video that amounts to defamation.

Balazs Orban did not immediately reply to emailed Reuters questions. But on Facebook he accused Magyar of wanting to “silence those who uncover their real intentions.”

Analysts said the incident risked widening Hungary’s deep political divisions.

“Things get dangerous when there is a video in which Magyar says things that he never did,” said Gabor Polyak, head of the School of Media and Communication at Eotvos Lorand University.

Polyak added that Hungarian civil and criminal laws provide protection against defamatory fake videos, though court rulings on such cases remain untested.

(Reporting by Anita KomuvesEditing by Mark Potter)