MS Attorney General tells Colom to take down AI video of Hyde-Smith

• Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch asked Senate candidate Scott Colom to remove an AI-generated video of his opponent.
• The video depicts Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith avoiding reporters' questions and is labeled "Based on a true story."
• The Mississippi Republican Party chair reported the video to the Attorney General, citing a potential violation of a 2024 deepfake law.
• Fitch's office warned of a possible injunction and criminal penalties if the video is not taken down.
• Colom's campaign has characterized the complaint as a political stunt and an act of desperation.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch waded into the U.S. Senate contest between Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Scott Colom on Oct. 23, asking Colom to take down an AI-generated video of his opponent ahead of Election Day.

The video shows a figure that resembles Hyde-Smith fleeing from reporters and dodging questions about health care and the senator's "pick another protein" interview moment. Neither the video nor the caption on Instagram or Facebook disclose that it was produced with artificial intelligence; the captions on both sites read "Based on a true story."

Colom agreed to delete the post "in the spirit of being good stewards of [taxpayer] money," he wrote in an Oct. 23 statement, because he "will not waste those hard-earned dollars on costly litigation."

Fitch's statement and Colom's response came a day after Mississippi Republican Party Chair Mike Hurst reported Colom's campaign to her office for a potential state law violation. Hurst wrote in a letter that he suspected Colom, a district attorney, broke a 2024 law on deepfakes released within 90 days of an election.

"Mississippi law is clear. You cannot manufacture a fake video of your opponent and pass it off to voters as real in the final weeks of an election," Hurst wrote in an Oct. 22 news release. "Scott Colom didn't label this video as artificial intelligence. Instead, he claimed it was 'based on a true story.' That isn't satire. It isn't parody. It's deception, and Mississippi voters deserve better."

Fitch seemed to agree. In a Friday morning statement, she wrote that the posts "appear to violate State law against the use of 'deepfakes' to influence elections." She asked Colom's campaign to take the videos down from social media "or else the office may file an injunction."

Though Colom said his campaign would delete both posts, he pushed back on the Republican officials' characterization of the video.

"Cindy Hyde-Smith is clearly desperate and she and her allies are once again trying to weaponize the justice system to distract from the real issues, which is that she has sold out our farmers, sold out our small business, and sold out our families," Colom wrote. "Clearly this was parody, maybe too close to home because she knows she does love to hide from her own constituents and reporters."

Both Colom's statement and the video reference a Sept. 23 incident recorded at the U.S Capitol. When a reporter approached Hyde-Smith with questions about the death of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells, she told him she doesn't "do the hallway interviews" before calling for nearby security officers.

Colom said in a statement at the time that the video was "hard to watch," and he has alluded to the interaction many times since it was shared to social media.

The question of parody and satire, both of which are exceptions carved out from the deepfake law, is not easily answered. Neither term is defined in the statute, and it is ultimately a fairly subjective decision whether Colom's video fits either.

Fitch also told the campaign in her statement to "preserve all records related to this matter so as not to obstruct justice" because a violation can result in criminal penalties. Most convictions are punished by up to a year in prison, a fine of up to $5,000 or both. If the intent is to "deter any person from voting," Fitch wrote, the penalties are increased to a maximum of five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.

Fitch's statement is not a determination that Colom's video is a violation of state law. It is unclear whether the attorney general plans to pursue the case now that the video has been removed.

Bea Anhuci is the state government reporter for the Clarion Ledger. She has covered Mississippi politics, including the ups and downs of the U.S. Senate race between Scott Colom and Cindy Hyde-Smith, since the start of 2026. Email her at [email protected].