More than 100 deepfake video advertisements impersonating Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were promoted on Facebook in the last month, according to research by communications company Fenimore Harper. The ads may have reached up to 400,000 people and cost over £12,929, originating from 23 countries including the US, Turkey, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
The adverts include a fake BBC News clip featuring a deepfake of newsreader Sarah Campbell falsely claiming Sunak secretly earned “colossal sums from a project initially intended for ordinary citizens.” Another false claim involves Elon Musk launching an app that can “collect” stock market transactions, followed by a faked clip of Sunak endorsing the app. The clips lead to a spoofed BBC News page promoting a scam investment.
Marcus Beard, former Downing Street official and founder of Fenimore Harper, warned that the adverts mark a shift in quality and quantity of AI-generated falsehoods. “With the advent of cheap, easy-to-use voice and face cloning, it takes very little knowledge and expertise to use a person’s likeness for malicious purposes,” he said. He criticised Facebook’s moderation, noting that few ads were removed despite violating policies.
A UK government spokesperson said: “We are working extensively across government to ensure we are ready to rapidly respond to any threats to our democratic processes, through our defending democracy taskforce and dedicated government teams. Our Online Safety Act goes further by putting new requirements on social platforms to swiftly remove illegal misinformation and disinformation – including where it is AI-generated.”
A BBC spokesperson urged the public to get news from trusted sources, highlighting BBC Verify, launched in 2023 to address disinformation. A Meta spokesperson stated: “We remove content that violates our policies whether it was created by AI or a person. The vast majority of these adverts were disabled before this report was published.”
