Spain's Opposition Faces Complaint Over AI Deepfake Video

Spain's main opposition party, the conservative People's Party (PP), is facing a court complaint over an AI-manipulated video it launched across its social media channels in the week leading up to October 23, 2026. The complaint was filed by Leire Diez, a former Socialist party member whose likeness appears in the video.

The video is what is known as a deepfake, a clip altered with artificial intelligence so that real people seem to say or do things they did not. According to The Guardian, it used deepfake likenesses of people linked to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist party, appearing to admit to acts such as soliciting prostitutes and taking kickbacks, which are payments made in return for favours.

The video also includes an AI-generated version of Sánchez's wife, Begoña Gómez, speaking about receiving a university post thanks to her husband's job. It includes a deepfake of former Socialist president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero speaking about hiding jewellery in a safe. Gómez and Zapatero have denied any wrongdoing in ongoing investigations that the video refers to.

A disclaimer at the bottom of the video stated that it had been created with AI. It was written in very small type that was nearly transparent. By Friday, October 23, the video had drawn nearly 2 million views.

Diez's complaint accuses the PP of defamation, which means publishing false statements that damage a person's reputation, and of digital identity theft, the unauthorised use of someone's likeness online. She has asked for the video to be taken down immediately.

The dispute arrives during an election campaign. Sánchez called an early general election for November 29 on October 5, 2026, and Spain is preparing to vote next month.

The episode also has a precedent. In March 2025, the Dominican Republic rebuked the PP over an AI-generated video that indirectly linked the Caribbean nation, Reuters reported at the time.