Hempstead Supervisor John Ferretti's campaign takes down altered photo showing rival Joe Scianablo with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani

Hempstead Town Supervisor John Ferretti’s campaign removed a manipulated photo from its Facebook page this week following a complaint from an opponent in this fall's election, Democrat Joe Scianablo.

The manipulated photograph, posted May 16, showed Scianablo appearing to stand beside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, bearing similar joyous expressions, both holding hands to their chests, in front of a backdrop of a blurred crowd with people holding signs. 

On Monday, Scianablo’s campaign demanded that the photograph be removed, alleging that it violated a 2024 state law that generally requires that “materially deceptive media” used in a political campaign be labeled as such. In the case of visual media, the law requires a legible disclaimer that says “This (image, video, or audio) has been manipulated.”

As a remedy, candidates whose likenesses were used in violation of the law may seek an injunction to prevent further distribution of the image and seek legal fees.

“The image you published on Facebook plainly violates the statute,” Scianablo’s attorney, Josh Kelner of Manhattan-based Kelner & Kelner Esqs., wrote in a letter to Ferretti’s campaign. “It depicts an event that did not occur.”

On Tuesday, after Newsday reached out to Ferretti’s campaign for comment, the Facebook post was removed.

Absence of a disclaimer

“In the process of posting that image on Facebook the disclaimer was inadvertently not placed or cropped off,” Mike Deery, spokesman for the Nassau County Republican Committee and a volunteer with Ferretti’s campaign, said Tuesday. “The post has been removed and any future posts will have the required disclaimers for images that … have been manipulated.”

On Wednesday, Kelner said in a statement that Scianablo’s campaign was “glad the image was taken down.”

“But the fact that it remained online until legal action was threatened raises serious concerns,” Kelner said. “Compliance with election law should be the starting point for any campaign, not something that happens only after getting caught.”

Manhattan-based political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said Mamdani's progressive politics don't play well on Long Island. For many of the Island's voters, he said, Mamdani represents high taxes, crime and radicalism.

"Any time the Republicans can attach Mamdani to the Democrats in suburban settings, the Republicans will benefit from it,” Sheinkopf said.

Representatives for Mamdani did not respond to a request for comment. 

Laws adopted as deepfakes grow

New York’s law against electronically manipulated political imagery is one of dozens adopted by states across the country in recent years as AI-generated imagery has become easy for anyone with an internet connection to produce. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 30 states have enacted laws since 2019 to regulate the use of “deepfake” or manipulated media, mostly by requiring some form of disclosure.

“The First Amendment has been interpreted really to grant the most protection for political speech,” Scott Babwah Brennen, director of the Center on Technology Policy at New York University, said. “There's a really high bar to any sort of limitation put on political speech.”

Brennan said most of these kinds of laws are very narrow in scope.

“A lot of these laws came out of a concern that AI would be used to create deceptive content that would make people believe something happened that didn't,” Brennen said. These laws generally require that when a campaign uses deceptive media created with generative AI, “if you put a label on it that 'this is synthetic' or 'this is artificial content,' that's fine," he said.

Ilana Beller, an organizing manager at the left-leaning Public Citizen, who tracks state laws regulating deepfakes, said legislation to restrict deceptive content in political campaigns has enjoyed bipartisan support.

“The likely most damaging situation would be someone who circulates a deepfake very broadly, very close to Election Day and deceives voters intentionally and ultimately sways the hearts and minds of voters,” Beller said. “That would of course be very problematic from the standpoint of what a free and fair election is and what democracy is.”