Malaysia warns of legal action over a fake AI video of Mahathir

Malaysia's communications regulator is reviewing an AI-made video of the country's former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, and has warned that anyone who shared it could face legal action. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said on October 2 that it had contacted the social platforms carrying the clip.

The video is 27 seconds long, black and white, and posted to TikTok by the account @vinustudio.my. It combines imagery of Mahathir wiping away tears with AI-generated scenes of him embracing his late wife, Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, set to emotional background music. By the time the commission spoke, it had more than 745,000 views, 30,200 likes and thousands of shares, according to Free Malaysia Today.

Hasmah died on September 28 at the age of 100. Mahathir visited her grave at Pusara Negara in Putrajaya in the days that followed.

The commission said it is examining whether the clip breaches Malaysian law. "If there were any violation of the law, appropriate action may be taken under existing legislation, including the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998," it said, per Malay Mail. The commission has not said the video has already been found to breach the law, only that it is under review, and that the outcome of that review will decide whether further action follows.

What the regulator objected to was not the subject but the method. It said manipulating authentic footage in ways that mislead the public, distort the context of an event or undermine a person's dignity should not be taken lightly, particularly during bereavement. "Technology should not be used to distort the truth or exploit a person's grief at the expense of human dignity and values," it said.

The case fits a pattern this year. In March the Malaysian government said AI and deepfake tools were increasingly being used to produce false or manipulated material, including content built around the images and voices of public figures. The clip appeared at the most sensitive possible moment for the family, and its spread put the question of how a reader is supposed to tell real footage from a generated scene in front of a national regulator rather than a platform trust-and-safety team.

For creators in the region, the practical reading is narrow but firm: a synthetic scene of a real public figure in a private moment of grief is now something a regulator has publicly put in the same sentence as a potential offence, whether or not a charge ever follows. The commission urged the public not to create or share manipulated material involving real people and to report suspected content to the platforms or the authorities.

The commission said its review is continuing; anyone who posted the clip has been told it could be acted on under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.