The digital landscape is currently witnessing a troubling surge in AI-generated “news” pages and political deepfakes, turning social media feeds into a breeding ground for sophisticated deception. These pages, which often boast over 100,000 followers, operate by scraping legitimate news reports, feeding them through AI software to rewrite the narrative, and pairing them with fabricated, highly dramatic visuals. NetSafe, New Zealand’s online safety authority, has issued dire warnings about this development. Chief online safety officer Sean Lyons emphasizes that when society loses its ability to trust what is displayed on a screen, the resulting erosion of public confidence threatens the very foundation of our shared reality, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish professional journalism from malicious fiction.
The human cost of this AI-driven misinformation is profound, turning genuine tragedy into performative content. For instance, when Shara-Lee Porter, a mother mourning the loss of her son Tyler, shared her grief with mainstream media, her story was hijacked by these predatory pages. They stripped away the nuance of her pain, replaced her context with inaccurate AI-generated text, and—most insultingly—used a photo of an entirely different woman on a different beach to create a “yes or no” poll about her family’s private memorial. For victims like Porter, this isn’t just a technical glitch; it is a violation that feels like a second, public robbing of their dignity, where their deeply personal experiences are distilled into “engagement bait” to capture clicks.
Beyond the emotional devastation, there is a clear financial motive behind these digital shadows, turning social media into a high-stakes hunting ground. Scammers are deploying deepfake videos that weaponize the faces of trusted politicians and public figures to lure unsuspecting seniors into fraudulent investment schemes. One victim shared that, after being misled by a video featuring a familiar face and a professional-sounding pitch for cryptocurrency, they lost their entire life savings. The tragedy is compounded by a sense of shame, which often leaves victims silent and the scammers emboldened. These creators are not merely sharing misinformation; they are building massive, automated funnels designed to exploit the digital divide and profit from vulnerable people.
Industry experts, including investigator Dylan Reeve, suggest that these pages often operate as a commercial engine. The goal is to build an audience quickly through inflammatory “news” or giveaways, eventually turning that page into a profitable asset or a funnel for further scams. While the exact mechanics remain murky, the output is undeniably calculated. Creating these pages requires time and resources, implying a return on investment that outweighs the moral cost of the lies being spread. There is agrowing frustration regarding the role of platforms like Facebook, which profit from the ad revenue generated on these sites while simultaneously struggling—or perhaps failing—to effectively gatekeep the truth.
The tech giants, particularly Meta, often respond by citing “industry-wide challenges” and protocols for moderation, such as partnering with independent fact-checkers to label or reduce the reach of misinformation. However, the speed of AI generation far outpaces traditional verification methods. While Meta maintains it takes action when content poses a risk of physical harm, the subtle, cumulative damage of “partly true” stories—where a shred of fact is used to anchor a mountain of deception—is much harder to flag. This lack of robust oversight leaves users in a state of confusion, where they are forced to act as their own editors in a feed designed to prioritize attention over accuracy.
In the long term, the most dangerous consequence of this trend is the total erosion of civic trust. As Sean Lyons pointed out, the damage is two-fold: not only do people fall for fake stories, but they eventually stop believing in legitimate, verified information altogether. This creates a state of apathy where individuals, exhausted by the effort of trying to discern what is real, eventually disengage from the democratic process entirely. We are reaching a critical turning point where the unchecked power of AI, if not met with stronger editorial accountability and transparent platform management, threatens to permanently fracture our ability to participate in a healthy, shared society.