In 2024, a record number of people around the world were eligible to vote in elections in over 70 countries. Populous nations like the US, India, and Indonesia, as well as authoritarian states like Belarus, Iran, and Russia, all had high-stakes votes. A significant European election saw 182 million people voting across 27 countries. Despite warnings about the impact of misinformation and generative AI on electoral processes, some studies suggest that the impact of these factors was limited. However, there were instances where AI-enabled misinformation and foreign interference did disrupt elections, such as in Romania where the presidential election results were annulled due to intelligence indicating a state actor’s involvement in orchestrating a social media campaign.
One notable example of misinformation and foreign interference in elections was when the imprisoned former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, used AI to clone his voice and proclaim victory in the country’s general election from behind bars. His party ultimately failed to form a government despite winning the majority of seats. In the European parliamentary election in June, the EU faced threats of disinformation designed to undermine the vote. While disinformation related to the EU reached record levels online, the election proceeded without significant threats or incidents of disinformation affecting the outcome.
In Moldova, a knife-edge referendum on EU membership was marred by interference as Moldovans voted on their country’s EU membership bid. There were reports of Russian funds being funneled to anti-EU voters, but ultimately, the country voted in favor of joining the European bloc. The US presidential election in 2024 experienced bomb threats that forced the closure of polling stations in key swing states. The FBI indicated that many of these threats seemed to originate from Russian email domains, highlighting the vulnerability of the election to foreign interference.
Romania’s presidential election garnered attention after an ultranationalist candidate, Calin Georgescu, unexpectedly won the first round following a successful TikTok campaign. However, intelligence revealed a state actor, presumably Russia, was behind Georgescu’s rise, leading to the annulment of the first-round results and the cancellation of the run-off. The EU has launched an investigation to determine if TikTok breached EU law in facilitating the campaign, in accordance with the Digital Services Act. These instances underscore the ongoing challenges faced by democracies in countering misinformation, generative AI, and foreign interference in electoral processes, despite efforts to safeguard the integrity of elections worldwide.
