Published February 29, 2024
By A. P. Dillon
The First Freedoms Foundation X page is shown.
A PAC that has popped up in the North Carolina 6th Congressional District GOP primary recently posted to X what appeared to be “deep fake” style audio and video of former Congressman Mark Walker.
The clips first appeared as two stand-alone posts on X but were removed after North State Journal inquired about them. The PAC, First Freedoms Foundation, then blocked this reporter.
The clips, however, were also posted as replies to other posts made by certain campaigns, such as the example below
“This is an egregious use of AI technology and sets an example of what not to do in a campaign,” said Walker campaign strategist Paul Shumaker. “The FEC has already made it clear that false AI content violates federal election law and we intend to explore all legal options.”
The statement from the Walker camp also referred to statements made by FEC member Allen Dickerson on AI-generated images.
Lying about someone’s private conversations or posting a doctored document or adding sound effects in post-production or manually air-brushing a photograph — if intended to deceive — would already violate our statute,” Dickerson said during an Aug. 10 meeting.
According to First Freedom Foundation’s website hosting information, the site was registered by Nicky Smith, the CEO and founder of Carolina Digital Phone, a web hosting and telecom company in Greensboro.
In a phone interview with Smith, he repeatedly denied being involved with First Freedoms Foundation in any way, in the running of the PAC’s website or social media accounts.
Smith did admit he donated to First Freedoms Foundation “when it first started up.” FEC records show a $2,000 donation made by James N. Smith, Jr., with an occupation listed as Carolina Digital Phone.
When asked, Smith seemed unaware he had made a personal Facebook post on March 27, 2023, linking directly to the PAC’s website.
Smith said his name probably just came up because his name was listed as the site registrant. He later said he did not remember much about the people whom he met with who bought the site but said he thought one was “from Raleigh.”
“Again, you’re stretching a 68-year-old memory of something I did a year ago, but to answer your question no, I’m not associated with it,” Smith said. He told North State Journal he would “check his customer records” for the individuals associated with the PAC and its website.
He also denied knowing the name “Fredrick Macaulay,” the man listed as the point of contact on the PAC’s website.
North State Journal reached out to Macaulay through the Washington, D.C. number associated with the PAC but our call was almost immediately sent to voicemail. Neither the PAC nor Macaulay has returned calls as of Wednesday morning.
On Feb. 25, North State Journal broke the story regarding the recycling of a 2022 endorsement video by NASCAR legend Richard Petty of D6 candidate Christian Castelli.
The Castelli campaign said Petty had re-upped the endorsement, however, the Petty family said Richard Petty was making no endorsements for the 2024 primary.
First Freedoms Foundation was also recycling the Petty video endorsement of Castelli.
