A recent video on Facebook shows the couple outside an English pub. The woman complained that there were no halal options and she was served pork.
News.Az, citing North West by Lines, said she insisted tourist pubs should have halal menus out of respect for Muslim patrons.
This poster invites people to comment their thoughts under the guise of a discussion. The comments quickly devolve into anti-immigrant rhetoric. One user says, “Go back to your country,” while another says, “If you can’t fit into our culture, you shouldn’t be here.” However, this is not a real couple outside a real pub. These are generated by AI and designed to generate engagement among people with anti-immigrant views.
AI-generated anti-immigrant video
Across Facebook, many accounts have published similar videos, spreading across the platform. The jumbled text, video glitches, and very “smooth” quality of the footage should make it clear that this content is not real. Some users have even revealed the use of AI, claiming that it is being used to recreate “real-life” scenarios.
Dr. Daniel de Zeeuw of the University of Amsterdam studies the right-wing social media ecosystem, tracking the transition from fringe sites like 4Chan to mainstream social media networks. He said the right-wing has always used “trolling to influence the public conversation about a topic” and is “very good at creating memes that generate a lot of engagement online.” AI videos spreading on Facebook are just another example of this “trolling” invading mainstream social media spaces.
In an interview, Dr. de Zeeuw explained how AI-generated videos promoting anti-immigrant rhetoric fit into the framework of “post-truth conspiracy theories.” “Post-truth” refers to a widespread movement in which arguments are based on emotions and beliefs rather than objective facts or “truths.” However, Dr de Zeeuw said that modern conspiracy movements, which present themselves as “truth seekers” and “truth discovery heroes”, are creating a framework that he calls “post-truth conspiracy theory”.
These AI videos fuel anger against immigrants
AI videos containing anti-immigrant rhetoric rely on stirring up anger to generate engagement, rather than providing objective statistics about immigration. Dr. de Zeeuw explained that AI has a “tenuous relationship to truth” and generates false and biased information to elicit expected behavior in response to prompts.
AI content has the potential to enhance conspiratorial thinking because it is not bound by “constraints” and can enhance “fantasies” without the “natural barriers” of the real world.
Some people in the comments section of this content don’t seem to realize that these videos aren’t real. However, Dr de Zeeuw explained why whether people believe the content is real is not always the ‘right’ question to ask.
he said:
Users rarely truly believe it. The content resonates with them and reflects their political viewpoints.
Share a video to show your position
For some, engaging with this content is a performative gesture. By sharing this content, the “sharer” is saying “I belong to this community” and “sending a signal to people that you are on their side,” Dr de Zeeuw added.
To explain this, he compared AI video to the concept of a “Mar-a-Lago face.” This refers to the extremely smooth, bold features (often achieved through cosmetic surgery) that many of the women around Trump have. “The key is the artificiality,” he says. There is an expression of power in being able to “manipulate reality” and “normalize” certain “aesthetic norms”. The unrealistic “look” of AI is itself a political signal.
Not all Facebook users see AI videos for what they are
However, there are concerns that younger people, the main age group on Facebook, have lower digital literacy. This means that your ability to detect AI-generated content will be reduced. Meta has announced that in 2024, posts created using AI will include an “AI Information” disclaimer. However, this depends on whether Facebook detects the content or whether users self-declare their posts as being created by AI. The rate at which this content is created and shared makes it difficult to label every post accordingly.
Dr de Zeeuw said:
In an ideal world, you would have a system in place to manage your content.
But when it comes to social media companies, “there doesn’t seem to be an inherent value system,” Dr de Zeeuw explained. Rather, they act opportunistically just to make a profit.
Right-wing AI content keeps people engaged so it doesn’t get removed from apps
Right-wing social media accounts use post-truth tactics to generate engagement because their audiences become highly emotionally involved with their content. Therefore, spreading this content across these platforms is in the best interest of social media companies as they can keep people on the app for longer. A U.S. jury recently ruled in favor of a woman who filed a lawsuit claiming that Meta Inc.’s platform was intentionally addictive. As a result, there is a growing awareness and demand for accountability around these engagement tactics.
AI-generated content is impossible to escape on social media, but even in its most innocuous form it bends the boundaries of reality. How do we bring people back to reality when truth is more important than emotion?
News.AZ
Written by Leila Sirinova
