Purportedly AI-Manipulated Image Reported to Falsely Depict Taiwanese Politician Kao Chia-yu Posing With PRC Flag

In late December 2025, an altered image reportedly circulated online falsely depicting former Taiwanese legislator Kao Chia-yu posing in front of the PRC five-star flag, implying travel to or alignment with China. Reporting indicates the image was manipulated from a real photo taken at Taiwan's representative office in New York, replacing the Republic of China flag. Kao publicly debunked the image, citing AI-assisted disinformation and warning of political smearing ahead of elections.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 4 Malicious actors
• Primary risk subdomain: 4.1 Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale

The incident involves the creation and dissemination of AI-manipulated political disinformation targeting Taiwanese politicians to influence public opinion and manipulate the upcoming 2026 local elections.

Additional risk subdomains

• 4.3 Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation: The AI-manipulated image targeted a specific political figure, Kao Chia-yu, to damage her personal and professional reputation.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Intentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The incident was caused by human actors intentionally using deployed image manipulation tools to create political disinformation targeting a legislator.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Limited Risk: The report describes AI-generated content such as deepfakes ('合成影像' or synthetic images/videos), which fall under Limited Risk and require transparency obligations to notify users of AI generation.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: None named
• AI purpose: Deepfake Image Generation; Deepfake Video Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Unknown deepfake technology developers, Unknown AI image generator developers
• Alleged deployer: Unknown disinformation actors, Unknown actors
• Alleged harmed parties: National security and intelligence stakeholders, Kao Chia-yu, General public of Taiwan, General public, Epistemic integrity

Harm severity

Severity ratings are based on this scale.

Highest direct severity in any category: Minor. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Privacy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

Malicious content

Reported: Yes, the report describes malicious, manipulated political content created to smear politicians.

Directly caused: An altered image of Kao Chia-yu replacing the Taiwanese flag with a PRC flag, and a fake AI video of Wang Shih-chien, were created and circulated online.

Inferred additional harm: It is likely that other political figures in Taiwan have been or will be targeted with similar synthetic media ahead of the 2026 elections.

Democracy

Reported: Yes, the report describes the use of synthetic media and false information to target political figures ahead of the 2026 local elections.

Directly caused: The dissemination of manipulated images and videos of politicians undermines the integrity of democratic elections by deceiving voters.

Inferred additional harm: The widespread use of AI-generated disinformation could erode public trust in democratic institutions, political candidates, and the electoral process in Taiwan.

Epistemic

Reported: Yes, the report explicitly mentions fake information and synthetic media being used to mislead the public.

Directly caused: The manipulated photo falsely depicted Kao Chia-yu with a PRC flag, and a fake video falsely claimed Wang Shih-chien visited China.

Inferred additional harm: The proliferation of such high-quality fakes makes it harder for citizens to distinguish real political events from fabricated ones, degrading the shared information ecosystem.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 2
• People reportedly harmed: 2
• People reportedly exposed: 2

Potential causes

Management

• Social Media Platform Control: Platforms failed to proactively detect and flag manipulated media.

Technology

• AI Video Forgery Tools: Malicious actors used AI to forge politician identities in videos.
• Image Manipulation Software: Easy access to photo editing tools allowed altering background flags.

Data Inputs

• Publicly Available Photos: Official photos of politicians were easily sourced and manipulated.
• Identity Data Exploitation: Biometric and voice data of politicians used to train AI models.

Human Factors

• Malicious Intent of Actors: Unscrupulous individuals deliberately spread political disinformation.
• Credulous Public Auditing: Some citizens easily believe and spread unverified online content.

Process and Methods

• Ineffective Verification: Lack of quick verification methods for public figures to debunk fakes.
• Sloppy Editing Work: Manipulators left errors like the plum blossom emblem on the wall.

Regulatory Environment

• Weak Disinformation Laws: Insufficient legal deterrents for generating political deepfakes.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report clearly details the nature of the disinformation, the specific politicians targeted, the exact manipulation performed on the image, and the political context (the 2026 elections). The facts are straightforward and corroborated by the politician's own social media response.
• Ambiguities identified: The specific AI tools or software used to perform the image manipulation and video generation are not identified.
• Alternative interpretations: None. The incident is clearly a politically motivated disinformation attempt using manipulated media.

Taiwanese politicians were targeted with AI-assisted manipulated media, including a photoshopped flag and a fake video, to damage their reputation ahead of local elections. The low sophistication of the edits led to quick detection, resulting in a minor national security impact, though it highlights the ongoing threat of digital disinformation targeting democratic processes.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Scope: Single nation
• Primary target: Taiwan
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. The incident represents an ongoing strategic concern regarding AI-enabled disinformation campaigns ahead of the 2026 elections rather than an immediate crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI tools were used directly by human operators to manipulate specific images and videos.
• Novelty: Established threat. Manipulated media and deepfakes targeting political figures are well-established methods of digital disinformation.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical systems, critical infrastructure, or human safety elements were affected by this incident.
• Information security: Minor. Involves AI-assisted political disinformation and image manipulation targeting Taiwanese politicians, but the low sophistication allowed for rapid debunking.
• Sovereignty: Minor. Represents an attempt to influence democratic processes and election integrity through targeted smear campaigns, though impact on actual government functions was minimal.
• Economic security: Negligible. No strategic technology theft, financial system attacks, or economic manipulation occurred.
• Societal stability: Minor. Targeted reputation damage to political figures has the potential to erode public trust, but did not cause widespread social unrest or systemic human rights violations.