New Hampshire, the first presidential primary state for the U.S. Democratic Party, is experiencing an epidemic of automated recorded phone calls purportedly from an artificial intelligence (AI) voice that mimics the voice of President Joe Biden.
According to CNN on the 22nd (local time), a day before the New Hampshire primary, several New Hampshire residents received calls with the fake voice of Biden urging them not to vote.
It is unclear who was behind the fake calls. The fake call, which mimicked Biden’s voice, said, “Republicans have been pressuring independent and Democrat voters to participate in the primary. That’s bullshit,” and “We know the value of voting for the Democrat. It’s important to save every vote for the November election.”
Aaron Foss, CEO of spam and scam call-blocking app developer Nomorobo, told CNN that 76% of the fake calls targeted New Hampshire residents, 12% targeted Boston, and the remaining 12% targeted other areas. He estimated the number of fraudulent calls at between 5,000 and 25,000.
Kathy Sullivan, who runs the Democratic Party’s New Hampshire super PAC, criticized the campaign, saying, “This was orchestrated by someone to hurt Biden. This is an attack on democracy and should be subject to strict criminal punishment,” she said.
President Biden did not even register as a candidate in the New Hampshire primary, so his name is not even on the ballot. Instead, Biden’s supporters are conducting a write-in vote campaign to add his name to the ballot.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) previously changed the first primary state from New Hampshire to South Carolina because New Hampshire, where 90% of the population is white, does not reflect racial diversity. However, New Hampshire, which has adhered to the tradition of being the ‘first primary state,’ resisted the DNC’s decision. They decided to hold an unofficial primary on the date originally scheduled, the 23rd.
By. Ju Hye Yoon
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