The Small Print
Five weeks before Spain's election, the main opposition party, the Partido Popular, posted a video.
The video
A party fighting Spain's next election posted a video made with AI and labelled it in type about one percent of the screen's height. Europe's AI Act now asks for a label that is "clear and distinguishable". No regulator or court has yet said whether this one was.
The Partido Popular, Spain's main opposition party, posted it on X on 21 October, five weeks before the election of 29 November. It uses the likenesses and cloned voices of real people linked to the governing Socialists.
On X alone it drew 1.38 million views by 28 October. Europa Press reported more than 500,000 on Instagram and more than 200,000 on TikTok. El País put the reach at almost two million; The Guardian said nearly 2 million.
Source: The party's own X post; Europa Press, 22 October 2026 (Instagram and TikTok, 'more than')
The post's own video-view count on X, 1,383,910 as read on 28 October 2026, after 2,362,272 impressions on 27 October; Instagram and TikTok as Europa Press reported on 22 October, drawn at those floors. What the AI voices say about real people is never repeated, quoted or paraphrased here, and no frame of the video is shown.
The label
The video does carry a label: "Contenido generado con IA", content generated with AI. We measured it on the party's own video.
Its capital letters stand about 1.1 percent of the frame's height, the full line about 1.6 percent. It is semi-transparent. From 46.5 seconds, on the end card, it is gone.
Measured on the party's own video, in vertical frames of 768 by 1344. The film shows a reconstruction captioned at that size in a 9:16 box, not a frame of the video.
Both sides
The government says the label is not enough. Spain's digital minister, Óscar López, told the state broadcaster TVE: "It's very easy for anyone who isn't used to AI to confuse that video with reality."
The party says intent is what counts. Its Borja Sémper: "If there had been malicious intent to make people believe… we'd have a problem."
TVE is a channel of RTVE, the state-owned public broadcaster. López's English words are The Guardian's rendering of his Spanish. Sémper's words are as elDiario.es reported them on 22 October; his Spanish was 'intención espuria'.
The law
Europe's AI Act applies to exactly this. Since 2 August, anyone who uses AI to publish a deepfake must disclose that the content was artificially generated or manipulated, and must do it "in a clear and distinguishable manner".
Satire gets a lighter duty, not an exemption. Where a work is evidently satirical, creative or fictional, the label need only not hamper the display or enjoyment of the work. It must still be there.
Articles 50(4) and 50(5) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, in application since 2 August 2026. The duty binds 'deployers': whoever uses the AI system to publish.
The open question
So is one percent clear and distinguishable? More than half a dozen lawyers El País consulted said free-speech and satire protections are wide enough to cover the video. The paper did not say the video was 'not illegal'.
No regulator or court has ruled. On 27 October Spain's national court, the Audiencia Nacional, refused a related complaint against the party, on jurisdiction and not on the merits, as elDiario.es reported.
El País's lawyers were "más de media docena", more than half a dozen. The judge's words, as elDiario.es (Javier Lillo) reported them: "no figuran entre los supuestos tasados atribuidos a la competencia de la Audiencia Nacional".
The size of the type
The rule now exists. Its first test is the size of the type.
Two things to watch. Whether any regulator takes the case up before the election on 29 November. And whether the next party video carries its label large, whole and to the end.
What we couldn't confirm: the Instagram and TikTok counts beyond Europa Press's floors.
Every quote from the party's own post, the law's own text, and the reporters who covered it. Token Runner dot A I.
Sources
- The Partido Popular's own X post (@ppopular) of 21 October 2026, 22:18 CEST: 1,383,910 video views as read on 28 October 2026 (2,362,272 impressions on 27 October). The video's likenesses and cloned voices are of real people linked to Spain's governing Socialists; no frame of it and none of its lines are reproduced here. The label as measured on 768x1344 frames (9:16): the full line about 1.6% of the frame's height, the capitals about 1.1%, semi-transparent, absent from the end card from 46.5 s.
- Europa Press, 22 October 2026: more than 500,000 views on Instagram and more than 200,000 on TikTok (as reported; drawn at those floors).
- El País, 22 October 2026: the party's video, its reach ('casi dos millones') and the people it depicts, as the paper reported it.
- The Guardian, 23 October 2026: the video seen nearly 2 million times across platforms, and its English rendering of Óscar López's words, "It's very easy for anyone who isn't used to AI to confuse that video with reality."
- Óscar López, Spain's digital minister, on TVE (RTVE, the state-owned public broadcaster), in his own words: "muy fácil que una persona confunda ese vídeo con una realidad" (RTVE, 23 October 2026).
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the AI Act, Article 50(4) and 50(5), in application since 2 August 2026: deployers of an AI system that generates or manipulates a deepfake "shall disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated" … "in a clear and distinguishable manner"; where the content is evidently artistic, creative, satirical, fictional or analogous, the duty is limited to a disclosure that does not hamper the work.
- El País, 23 October 2026: more than half a dozen lawyers it consulted ("más de media docena") said the free-speech and satire protections are wide enough to cover it; it did not say the video was 'not illegal'. No regulator or court has ruled on whether it is lawful (elpais.com refuses scripts; read through the search index and a syndicated copy that links to it).
- Borja Sémper, Partido Popular, as elDiario.es reported him on 22 October 2026: "If there had been malicious intent to make people believe… we'd have a problem" (in Spanish, 'intención espuria').
- elDiario.es (Javier Lillo), 27 October 2026: the Audiencia Nacional refuses a related complaint against the party over the video, on jurisdiction and as a personal matter outside the judge's case; the judge's words: "no figuran entre los supuestos tasados atribuidos a la competencia de la Audiencia Nacional". No ruling on the video's lawfulness.