BBC finds overseas fakers using AI videos to push UK decline narrative

A BBC Panorama and Top Comment podcast investigation has uncovered dozens of Facebook and Instagram accounts creating AI-generated anti-immigration videos about the UK, often run by operators in Sri Lanka, the US, Vietnam, the Maldives, Iran, and the UAE. The "Great British People" page, purportedly from Yorkshire but actually based in Sri Lanka, garnered 1.3 million views for a video of an elderly white man crying about his pension. Other videos depict the House of Commons filled with men in Arab clothing imposing Sharia law, or future British cities like Liverpool, London, and Birmingham as dirty and chaotic with Islamic imagery. London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said some accounts are backed by hostile states like Russia and Iran, while others are motivated by profit through social media monetization. Meta stated it takes coordinated inauthentic behavior seriously. Experts note that people are poor at detecting AI fakes, with only about 55% accuracy, and that exposure to AI content increases distrust of authentic material. The creators of one account with over 20 million views claimed to be in a European country and denied political motivation, saying they aim to inform voters about potential future trends.