Overview

• The video was built from Klobuchar’s July 30 Judiciary subcommittee hearing and falsely inserted vulgar lines about Sydney Sweeney and Democrats, with reported views topping one million.
• TikTok removed the clip and Meta applied an AI label, while X declined to take it down or label it and suggested seeking a Community Note.
• Lead Stories and other outlets confirmed the footage was digitally manipulated, echoing Klobuchar’s New York Times op-ed calling it a deepfake.
• Klobuchar is urging passage of the bipartisan No Fakes Act to give people a right to demand removal of deepfakes of their voice and likeness, with sponsors including Chris Coons, Marsha Blackburn and Thom Tillis.
• The push follows the Take It Down Act signed in May targeting nonconsensual intimate-image deepfakes, as experts and civil liberties groups debate detection limits and First Amendment risks, citing recent AI impersonations of public officials.